


The Sea Troll King

by GnohomasWitness



Category: Runescape (Video Games)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-02-07
Updated: 2019-07-23
Packaged: 2019-10-23 17:30:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 9
Words: 48,409
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17687813
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GnohomasWitness/pseuds/GnohomasWitness
Summary: It's a long weekend following the events of Dragon Slayer 2. Adam tries to relax after the ordeal, unfortunately, it seems that his holiday will be cut short as he's sent on another perilous journey. The adventurer knows no rest.





	1. Vacation Cut Short

It was the annual lobster festival at Musa Point on the tropical island of Karamja. People gathered from all over the world to attend the festivities. Adam Neeson sat at table on the bar patio while he watched the volunteers set up the last of the decorations. He, like many of the guests, was waiting for the fishing ships to return with the thousands of lobsters that would be cooked that night. Once the ships arrived, the festival would really begin.

Adam couldn’t wait, he had been meaning to attend the festival for years but had never been able to make it. He promised himself that he would make this one in celebration of his recent victory over the dragonkin and induction into the Myth’s guild. One could not have asked for a better day to hold the event. The ocean sparkled under the shining sun. The trees and buildings on Musa Point were adorned with banners for the event. People in colourful shirts and bathing suits mingled around the many large campfires that spotted the beaches on both sides of Musa Point.

“Another beer, Kananga?” A voice called from behind Adam.

Adam turned to face the voice’s owner, it was Zambo the bartender. “Of course!” Adam replied with a smile, quickly gulping what remained of his current beer. _Green Kananga_ was Adam’s Legends’ guild title and it was common for people to know him as that rather than his birth name, especially in more exotic places like Karamja.

Zambo went inside and came back with another beer. Adam tipped him, Zambo smiled and nodded. Looking down at the full stein in front of him, Adam laughed to himself. One million coins in debt with Rallis, two million with Gary, and this was how he was spending his weekend.

“I deserve this.” He muttered to himself and he raised his glass to his mouth. Was this his fifth? His sixth? He couldn’t remember, and the festival had only just begun. Adam stopped before his first sip, he stood up and turned to a table of pirates beside him and raised his glass. “To Bob the Cat, may he live on in our hearts and minds!” he toasted, slurring his words only slightly.

The pirates looked at each other confused and shrugged. “Yarrr!” They shouted, raising their rum bottles. Alcohol can make complete strangers the best of friends. The tropical kiss of karamjan rum had seeped into their salt-clogged souls hours ago. They were happy to drink to whoever and whatever, even to a cat. The pirates tipped back their bottles with the large, bearded, green man who stood before them. They invited him to sit down.

Adam sat on an empty chair at their table and told them his story fighting Vorkath and Galvek. The pirates listened intently, stopping every so often to cheer and drink to his achievements. Then the pirates told their own stories. They talked for hours about the ocean and the magnificent wonders that it contained. Adam had no idea of the adventures one could have at sea. A bell rang in the distance, Adam squinted and looked to the horizon.

“The fishermen be back laddie.” An older looking pirate said. ”Soon we’ll get to eat!” The pirates raised their bottles and drank.

It was about time, Adam was starving. “I’m going to help them bring the cargo in.” Adam said, straightening up a female pirate who had rested her head on his shoulder. As he stood, the full effects of the alcohol he had been drinking all this time hit him like a blackjack to the head. He stumbled over the patio fence and headed to the docks. He waved back at the pirates. They didn’t notice him, no doubt absorbed in another fascinating story from the seas.

Adam arrived at the docks on the northern shore of Musa Point. A fishing boat was just coming in when he got there. Adam watched as the boat’s crane lowered barrels of lobsters onto the docks.

“Kananga!” A familiar voice called from the boat. “It’s good to see you again!”

Adam looked around, confused, his drunkenness dawning on him even more. Then he noticed the man staring down at him from onboard the boat. “Cyrisus!” Adam shouted. “It’s been too long!”

Cyrisus jumped down from the boat. The dock shuddered as he landed. Cyrisus got several glares of disapproval from the workers. “Heh, sorry…” he chuckled before turning to Adam, hugging him. “I was helping them fish the lobsters for the festival. I had never fished off shore before. It was incredible, the sea is truly remarkable!”

“So I’ve heard.” Adam said with a smile, still slurring his words. He nearly lost his balance when Cyrisus let go of him. “You’ll have to forgive me, I’ve had a few.”

“It sounds like you’ve had more that a few!” Cyrisus laughed, patting Adam on the back. “I hope you haven’t called it quits for the night without me!”

“Not even close!”

Cyrisus laughed once more. “Glad to hear it! Do you think you can carry a barrel?”

“Of course I can!” Adam slurred as he picked up the fullest barrel of lobsters on the dock.

“That’s the spirit” Said Cyrisus, picking up a barrel for himself.

The two of them headed to the cooking tents with their barrels. Cyrisus turned his head to face Adam. The heavy barrel pushed up against the side of his face. “Kananga, I heard about your victory against the dragons in the north, very impressive.”

“Thank you very much.” Adam replied daintily. “It was quite the battle. We could have used your help…”

Cyrisus frowned. “Trust me I would have been there if I could have, but I had my own mission at the time.”

“Oh?”

“I was in Kourend on a job for Lady Piscarilius.” Cyrisus explained.

“She’s quite the charmer, isn’t she? What were you doing for her?”

Cyrisus chuckled a bit and gave a slight shrug under his barrel. “Yes well, there was an underground cult that had been slowly gaining followers in the Piscarilius house. They worshiped a god of the sea or something like that.”

“God of the sea?”

“That’s what they said, yes.” Cyrisus replied “They were kidnapping young girls and sacrificing them to this god. It was terrible! Lady Piscarilius didn’t want the Shayzien guards investigating her house’s underground for some reason and so she hired me. I managed to sneak into their temple to kill the cultists and free the girls who were still alive. The cult leader stabbed himself in the neck and died before I could beat him up myself.” Cyrisus put his barrel down and rubbed his eyes. “If only I had found the temple faster, I could have saved more of them!”

Adam put his barrel down too and comforted his friend. “You did the best you could, there’s no use fretting the past, believe me. It’s never done _me_ any good. There’re people who are alive today because of you. Not to mention you have put an end to this cult, saving the lives of maybe hundreds more.”

“Still…”

“Don’t let it get to you, be proud of what you managed to do.” Adam said, tapping Cyrisus’ chest with his forefinger. He picked up his barrel again. “We drink to celebrate our victories! Not to drown our regret. Now, tell me about this temple.”

“It was destroyed by Lady Piscarilius’ pirates after I killed the cultists. Kananga, you would have cried if you saw such work being desecrated.”

“What do you mean?”

“This was no makeshift temple. It was clearly an ancient structure. Elaborate statues and carvings lined the walls, patterns and murals of a design I had never seen before. They depicted these creatures, like trolls with fins and the mouth of a lamprey. The pillars of the temple looked like tentacles of some sort and they all connected to a massive statue of a horrible squid-like beast in the center chapel. It was like something from a nightmare! The halls were warped as though they were not made with the intention of being walked down. The entrance to the chapel was an enormous circular window, ten or so feet off the ground! I had to climb a statue just to get in. All the creatures carved on the walls of the chapel were kneeling, praying to the beast whose statue stood behind the sacrifice slab. I had walked in on some kind of ritual. Massive circular portal frames made of stone were on opposite ends of the chapel. They were just beginning to activate when I stopped the ritual.”

Adam’s jaw dropped, the alcohol was beginning to lose the tug of war for his consciousness against his fascination. “Damn! I wish I could have been there before it was destroyed, but let’s hope that whatever was on the other side of those portals stays there.”

“Indeed.” Cyrisus nodded. He put his barrel down with the others by the cooking tent. Adam did the same. “Now” Said Cyrisus. “Like you said, let’s not fret the past, and instead, we’ll live in the moment!”

Adam laughed and patted Cyrisus on the back, gesturing him to the bar patio. The sun was beginning to set, and torches were being lit all over Musa Point. The festival was now in full swing. _Trolls with fins and the mouth of a lamprey_. Adam thought to himself as they walked to the bar together.

_Sea trolls? Not proper trolls… God of the sea… The attack at the Piscatoris Fishing Colony… But I killed the sea troll queen…_ Adam’s train of thought was interrupted by another familiar voice.

“Adam! Over here!”

At the bar patio sat Zanik the cave goblin, alone at a table. She was waving to them. Adam’s heart sank but he refused to show it, he smiled. “Cyrisus, there’s someone I want you to meet.”

Cyrisus looked hesitant at first but then smiled nodded.

“What’s the matter? Don’t like goblins?" Adam asked with a smirk.

“N-no it’s nothing.”

They climbed over the patio fence and sat at the table with Zanik.

“Three beers over here, please!” Adam called to Zambo. “Zanik, this is Cyrisus of Ardougne. Cyrisus, this is Zanik of the Dorgeshuun.”

“Hello there.” Zanik said, reaching her hand out.

“Hi” Cyrisus said awkwardly. He shook the goblin’s hand. “So… you’re a cave goblin?”

“That’s right, what tipped you off?” Zanik smirked.

“It was the… your eyes. They’re so… big. Not in a bad way or anything I think they’re pretty actually. I mean I…” Cyrisus went red.

Zanik raised her eyebrows and tilted her head, waiting for him to finish. The silence was broken when Zambo brought the beers to the table. Zanik pulled out her coin pouch, don’t trouble yourselves I can pay for this round.”

Adam stopped her. “No no, it’s alright I can do it, I’ve racked up enough debt as it is.” He payed Zambo and then turned to Cyrisus. “Zanik’s an adventurer too.”

“You don’t say!” Cyrisus said, looking more confident. “What’ve you been up to?”

Zanik shrugged. “Just exploring the surface really. I spent my whole life underground, now I’m making up for lost time. I’ve been thinking of applying for the champion’s guild.”

“You should!” Replied Cyrisus. “It opens a lot of doors. Same with the Heroes’ guild.”

“Indeed.” Said Zanik. She turned to Adam. “I hear you’re now in the Myth’s guild, congratulations.”

“Thank you very much!” Adam smiled, tipping his glass to her. “Although I don’t think I’m ready to settle down there quite yet, I’ve got a lot more adventure left in me.”

“What do you mean? What do they do there?”

“It seems to be mostly full of old adventurers who have already written their books and retired with nothing more to add to their story. But me, I’m just getting started!” Adam laughed. “I can’t imagine the day where I stay in one place for the rest of my life.”

Cyrisus looked at him. “Really? Well now that you mention it, neither can I.”

Zanik agreed. “It’s not in your blood, an adventurer can never stay in the same place. That’s why I left the caves!”

_Among other things._ Adam muttered to himself, nodding while writing down what he remembered of Cyrisus’ story on a notepad. Trying his hardest to hide his feelings.

“Did you say something?” Zanik asked him.

“Nah...” replied Adam, looking into her eyes with a smirk. He knew that she knew what he was thinking about. The two stared at each other.

“What are you writing?” Zanik asked, gesturing to his notepad.

“A couple things I wanna look for in the library when I get a chance, sea trolls, temples, sea gods.”

Cyrisus smiled at him “You would have been awestruck in that temple. You were the first person I thought of when I saw it.” Then he sighed, “If only it hadn’t been destroyed, and I had saved more people…”

“Anyway…” Zanik interjected. “Adam, put that away. And Cyrisus don’t worry about whatever’s troubling you. We’re here now, and we’re here to have a good time” She smiled and raised her glass.

The three of them clinked their glasses and drank. Round after round, sharing stories of great deeds and high adventure. Cyrisus got up drunkenly, holding the table to steady himself.

“I have to piss, I’ll be right back. Zanik, stay beautiful, and join the champion’s guild! Kanangadam! Don’t leave me out the next time the world is being invaded by dragons!”

Adam laughed and waved. God, he loved alcohol. Zanik rolled her eyes. Cyrisus stumbled over the patio fence and went behind a tree. Zanik turned to Adam. He could see the glaze in her eyes.

“Your friend is quite the character!” She said sarcastically.

Adam laughed. “He’s just awkward when it comes to meeting new people. When I met him, he was dying in a cave on the Lunar Isle, terrified of combat.”

“An adventurer who can’t fight?” Questioned Zanik, swishing the final sip of beer in the bottom of her glass.

“Oh, he can fight, I fixed him up right I did. Now he’s a better warrior than I am!” Adam laughed, then went serious. “…He’s right you know”

“I know! I’m going to pick up a guild application on Monday.”

“Well yeah that, but, about you being beautiful and all. I never stopped thinking about you… and us.”

Zanik groaned and buried her face in her hands. “How much have you had to drink?”

”A couple beers maybe a bottle of rum at one point why?”

Zanik pulled Adam’s glass to her side of the table. “I think you need a break, order a water the next round.”

“Yes ma’am.”

They stared at each other, waiting for Cyrisus to come back. A woman’s scream from the beach broke the silence. Adam and Zanik sprung up, holding the table to stay balanced as they looked around for the source of the screaming. A woman in a bathing suit came running to the bar. She looked terrified. The woman was crying and shouting at Zambo who looked around. He ran to Adam and Zanik.

“This woman says her husband was just attacked by a sea monster. There’s dozens of them climbing onto the beach!”

“Shit!” Adam looked around. “Come on Zanik, we’ll take a look.” He could hear more screaming coming from the beach.

Zanik fumbled for her crossbow and nodded. “Where’s Cyrisus?”

“Fucking hell, Cyrisus! Where are you?!” Adam shouted at the top of his lungs, drunkenly slurring his words.

A voice came shouting back from the beach. “Over here! I’m gonna need a little help!”

“Damnit” Adam muttered as he looked around the bar.

“Adam get your weapon!” Zanik snapped.

“I didn’t come to a lobster festival armed!” Adam snapped back, still frantically looking around. The more he moved, the dizzier he got.

Zambo tossed him a machete from behind the counter. “Will this do?”

“It’ll have to, come on let’s go.” Adam beckoned to Zanik. He tripped over the patio fence, breaking it down. It struck him how hard a fight was going to be while drunk. Zanik helped him up and the two headed for the beach.

When they arrived at the beach, Adam stopped and readied the machete. He felt Zanik drunkenly bump into him from behind before readying her crossbow. There was a weird satisfaction in knowing that the alcohol was affecting her too. The feeling passed once Adam saw what the people were running from. Sea trolls, just like the ones from the Piscatoris Fishing Colony. There were dozens of them, armed with clubs and tridents. The trolls were chasing the fleeing tourists, picking them up and taking them down into the water. Several pirates were fighting the trolls with cutlasses and crossbows. The night had fallen but the moon, the sparkling stars and the fires along the beach provided enough light to see what was going on.

Adam and Zanik ran forward, bumping into people fleeing the scene. Adam noticed an injured man dragging himself away from two looming sea trolls. He was about to back into one of the large beach fires. Adam rushed to his aid. One of the trolls pulled something out of a satchel it was wearing and slowly approached the man. Adam jumped, machete in hand and stabbed the troll in the back. The troll let loose an enraged gurgling noise as it cringed and swung around, trying to shake Adam off. He held on, his head spinning, his brain telling his hands through its drunken stupor to not let go. The machete was stuck in the troll’s back. Adam looked over and saw the other sea troll readying his trident. Adam eyes shot wide open as the troll lunged the trident at him. Digging his boots into the troll’s back, Adam managed to pull himself out of the trident’s way. The trident stabbed the sea troll instead. It screamed again, this time louder as the other troll pulled the trident out and took a swing with it. The tips of the trident just grazed Adam, ripping his shirt as the wounded sea troll continued to buck in pain. Finally, the machete came loose and Adam fell to the ground. He rolled just in time as a trident came down and impaled the ground where he fell. Unable to get up with any grace, Adam continued to roll on the ground, dodging the trident troll’s attacks as best he could. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see the injured man get up and run for the tents. He also saw the machete laying beside him. Adam reached for the machete and grabbed it only to have the trident come down on his arm, trapping his hand between its prongs. Adam caught his breath, he saw another troll loom over him, the wounded one. It raised its large scaly foot over Adam’s head and lowered it. Adam reached up with his free hand to prevent it from crushing him. The troll was wounded badly, but it was still large and very strong, Adam’s one arm grew tried and the troll’s foot came down lower and lower.

“Saradomin, give me strength...” He muttered to himself as the troll’s foot began to press against his skull.

Suddenly, the troll stopped pushing. It fell back, dead. Adam watched a bone bolt push its way through the front of the wounded troll’s neck as the beast hit the sand. He noticed that the troll with the trident had met a similar fate. Adam slowly got up to see Zanik standing in front of him, clumsily reloading her crossbow.

“Zanik! Still accurate as ever with that thing!” Adam shouted, grabbing the machete and the troll’s trident.

“Thank you works too! Now let’s kill these things!” Zanik stumbled toward a group of sea trolls that seemed to be gathering at the next fire. Adam’s head was still spinning. He held himself up with the trident and stared at the ground. He noticed an unusual amulet on the ground. There was no gem, it was made of some light blue metal. It was small, flat and round. There was a moulded image of a tentacled monster on the front and a lobster on the back. He put it in his pocket. Breathing heavily, he chased after Zanik. He thought about the kraken-like monster on the amulet.

_The sea troll queen… Fuck, is this my fault?_

As the two approached the next fire, the two of them saw what the sea trolls were closing in on. It was Cyrisus and a group of about a dozen tourists. Cyrisus had in his hand a burning piece of driftwood and was waving it in front of the trolls, keeping them away from the group. Adam and Zanik ran to him.

“Took you long enough!” Cyrisus shouted as he strafed toward the two, not daring to take his eye off any of the trolls.

“These your statues?” Asked Adam. He handed the machete to Cyrisus and readied the trident for himself.

“Looks like them, you saying this is my fault!?”

“No, not at all! It might be mine though!”

“What?”

“These guys attacked the Piscatoris Fishing Colony last winter and I killed their queen!”

“Who cares who’s fault it is let’s just finish this!” Zanik shouted at the two of them, raising her crossbow. The two men nodded.

The sea trolls charged at the three adventurers. The distraction allowed for the tourists to crawl away. A sea troll came at Cyrisus with a club, he clumsily dodged the attack. He then slashed the machete into the troll’s head, killing it instantly.

Two more trolls closed in on Cyrisus. Adam’s view of him was cut off. Adam looked around and saw Zanik. She was dizzily shooting a troll that was coming at her with a club. There was another troll with a trident ready to lunge at her from behind! Adam ran behind Zanik so that they were back to back. The sea troll lunged its trident. Adam raised his own trident and the forks locked. He let out a sigh of relief, but it was premature. The sea troll began violently pushing and pulling on the trident. It was trying pull Adam’s trident from his hands. Adam braced himself, keeping the forks locked and away from his face. Finally, Adam wrenched on his trident, pulling the troll’s trident out of its hands. The weapon fell to the ground. Adam quickly stabbed the sea troll in the head, killing it. Adam turned and saw a sea troll lurching toward Zanik, it had four bolts in it already. Zanik was desperately trying to reload her crossbow. He threw the trident at it, penetrating its heart. The troll finally fell. Adam and Zanik exchanged glances, panting. But where was Cyrisus? Adam couldn’t see him anywhere.

“Cyrisus! Where are you!?” Adam shouted.

There was no response.

“Over there!” Zanik pointed to a sea troll with an unconscious Cyrisus over its shoulder.

The two of them chased after the troll. Another sea troll blocked their path. They made short work of it. But when the troll fell, they could no longer see Cyrisus. The two watched as dozens of unconscious people were being carried into the sea.

“What the hell?” Adam muttered. He could see the shine from more of the blue amulets like the one he had picked up being worn by all the citizens being carried away.

“We can’t save them all, there’s too many of them.” Zanik turned to Adam. “Where are they taking them?”

“I don’t know!” Adam responded. “But let’s try to save as many people as we... as we…” The combat high was wearing off. So much exertion, not enough food and too much booze.

They both threw up and collapsed on the beach.


	2. Temples and Sea Trolls

Adam Neeson woke up in a tent. His head was pounding. He got up from the cot he had been thrown onto and went outside. His eyes were blinded by the bright tropical sun, he was still on Karamja. Part of him prayed that the previous night had not occurred. However, once he saw the rips on his shirt and the state of the festival, he knew that it was no nightmare. Decorations were torn from the buildings and trees. Ribbons, lobsters, dead sea trolls and injured partygoers littered Musa Point. Adam stumbled down the path to the beach where he had fought the sea trolls the night before. Memories of the night started to piece themselves together.

_Cyrisus!_

Fumbling through his pant pocket, Adam pulled out the amulet he had stolen from one of the sea trolls. He looked at his notebook.

_The statues in the temple were of sea trolls… But where did these ones come from?_

“Adam! You’re awake!” A voice came from behind. Adam turned, putting the amulet and notebook back in his pocket. It was Zanik, she looked about as sickly as he felt.

“Morning Zanik. Those trolls made off with Cyrisus and the others…”

Zanik nodded.

Adam looked out at the water and then to Zanik. “I don’t know where they came from. But I’m gonna find out where they went.”

“How?”

“I’m going swimming.”

***

Cyrisus groaned as he came to. He blinked as he slowly regained consciousness and looked around. He was in a prison cell with what looked like twelve other people.

“Where am I?” He muttered to himself.

“He’s awake!” A woman shouted.

He snapped awake, jumping to his feet and entering a combat stance, breathing heavily as he surveyed his environment through his groggy, blurred vison. The bodies gathering around him jumped back. Cyrisus’ last memory was of him being overwhelmed by sea trolls. His head began pounding and he groaned once more, slouching against the wall.

“Get him some food!” Someone said.

Cyrisus raised himself back to his feet, his bones creaked and his head spun as he did so. “I’m fine, I’m fine. Just… how long have I been out?”

A blurry figure approached him. “Yer the last one up laddie.”

Cyrisus’ vision came back to him. He looked around the room. The stone walls were lined with familiar patterns and carved images. The dungeon pillars had the same stone tentacle design as the temple under the Piscarilius house.

“The sea trolls…” He snapped. “I know this architecture... The temple!” He looked at the group in horror. “We’ve got to get out of here!”

“Ay” Sighed an old pirate with sore looking eyes.

Cyrisus was at a loss for words. He looked around at the other prisoners, many were on the ground sobbing. He walked up to the cell door. He could see more people in the cell across from him. He put his hands on the bars of the door, shaking with all his strength. The hinges rattled loudly, the sound echoing through the halls of the dungeon. Cyrisus heard an angry gurgling noise coming from around the corner. He stopped and turned to the prisoners. It was then that he noticed the amulets everyone was wearing. He looked down and noticed that he was wearing one too. Cyrisus tried to take it off but was stopped by the pirate.

“I wouldn’t do that if I were you.” The pirate choked, pointing to the ceiling.

Cyrisus looked up. He gasped. Above them, almost reaching the ceiling, a young girl was floating in mid air. She was blue in the face and very clearly dead. Her bloated body swaying only slightly while a terrified expression was frozen on her face. Cyrisus held his hand to his mouth as he slouched back along the wall. “Dear Guthix… What the hell is this place?”

“She took her amulet off and up she went.” The pirate whimpered, evidently trying to hold back a strong emotion. “I tried to toss it back up to her but it just came back down! Over and over I threw it but she couldn’t catch it!” He buried his head in his hands. “I watched me daughter die in front of me eyes!” The pirate threw the girl’s amulet to the ground. “Damn these trolls!”

Cyrisus panted, he looked the pirate in the eyes. “I’m so sorry.” He got no response. The pirate went off to the corner and sulked. Cyrisus edged over to the prison door and held on tight with one hand while he lifted the amulet over his head with the other. Instantly, he felt the pressure around him change. His ears popped and his eyes nearly burst from their sockets. He gasped only to take in a mouthful of water. His view of the others in the prison cell blurred. He was underwater, and he was drowning! His legs began to lift off from the ground. He held onto the bar on the door as tight as he could. The carved patterns on the bar dug into his hand. Cyrisus fumbled for the amulet. In his panic, he dropped it. He reached out to get it and the force from his movements in the water pushed it away. He had to let go of the door. Wedging his foot between the bars of the door, Cyrisus slowly reached out with both hands to grab the amulet. He hastily put it back on. In an instant the water was gone and Cyrisus fell to the ground. He was soaking wet. He vomited up the sea water he had swallowed and laid on his back, panting heavily.

As Cyrisus looked up at the ceiling, at the dead girl, he noticed something in the corner of his eye. A missing brick in wall. He got up and peered into the spot where the brick should have been. It was pitch black. Not one of his best ideas, he stuck his hand inside. He was up to his elbow when he felt something. He felt it with his fingertips and then his palm. It was a cold, slimy, squishy surface. Cyrisus hollered and jolted back, nearly wrenching his arm. He flicked his wrist to get the slime off his hand before just wiping it off on his pants. The dungeon began to pulse all around him and the rest of the prisoners. A rumbling sound came from the walls. Cyrisus stepped back, the others followed. They all stared at the hole in the wall.

The rumbling stopped and small tentacle peeked out from the hole. The prisoners gasped. The tip of the tentacle opened revealing a large eyeball. The eye looked around at the prisoners. Without thinking, Cyrisus punched the eyeball right in the pupal. The tentacle was knocked back and its eye smacked against the wall before it shut itself and the tentacle slithered back into the hole. The dungeon trembled again and the rumbling from the walls returned louder than ever.

“We have got to get out of here…” Cyrisus muttered to himself.

Suddenly, a trio of sea troll guards came running to the cell and violently swung open the door. The three of them started walking toward Cyrisus, tridents in hand, gurgling together in a low-key hum. Their mouths opening wider as they closed in on him, showing layers upon layers of teeth. The other prisoners ran to the opposite corner of the cell where they were obscured by a massive pillar. Cyrisus bent his knees and put his fist up as he stood in the combat stance Kananga had taught him. He backed away slowly. They were getting closer. Cyrisus felt something under his foot, nearly causing him to lose his balance. It was round and flat. The girl’s amulet! He kept eye contact with the trolls as he kicked the amulet. It skidded along the ground, between the legs of the middle troll and hit the prison bars with a loud clang. The sea troll on the left looked back to find where the noise came from and Cyrisus jumped, tackling the beast to the ground. He got behind the troll and wrapped his arm around its neck, strangling it while dragging it back out the open cell door. The troll desperately tried to pull Cyrisus’ arm from around its neck. The other two trolls turned around and crept forward toward Cyrisus, pointing their tridents at him. Cyrisus hid behind the downed troll as best he could, only showing enough of his head to see his enemies.

“Stay back!” A frantic Cyrisus shouted at the guards. “Or I’ll break his neck!”

The trolls either didn’t understand or didn’t care. They continued to creep closer and closer to Cyrisus, gurgling at him. Cyrisus kept backing up, the troll was growing weak. Suddenly, his back hit the door of the cell opposite to his. The hinges clanged. The prisoners squealed in fear. The two trolls were closing in, tridents drawn. Cyrisus looked to his left, then to his right. He kicked the troll into the other two and ran off down the hall.

As Cyrisus ran, the dungeon continued to tremble. The sea trolls were swimming fast behind him. He turned a corner and immediately hit something causing him to fall back into his tail bone. He looked up, it was another sea troll. It glared down at him with its beady, lifeless, black eyes. The troll gurgled and crept toward the fallen man. It readied its massive club. Cyrisus shuffled back trying to avoid the inevitable crushing blow. He had forgotten about the trolls that were chasing him.

Cyrisus felt a massive hand wrap around his neck from behind. He could feel a wrench in his neck as he was violently picked up from the floor and slammed face first against a wall. The creature turned him around and squeezed tighter on his throat. Cyrisus stared into the eyes of the sea troll as it strangled him. Blood from his bleeding brow started to obscure his vision. Cyrisus held onto the troll’s arms for support but he could feel himself growing weak. His eyes felt like they were going to pop out of his head. Suddenly, the troll threw him to the ground, letting go of his throat. Cyrisus, dazed, tried to stand up and fight but the troll smacked him hard on his head with its fist and he fell back down. He tried to get up again and the troll punched him in the gut. It hit him again in the face. Cyrisus lifted an arm to defend himself but the troll smacked his hand, jamming his fingers. The troll continued to beat Cyrisus until he was about to pass out.

“No more!” He panted with his arms in front of his head, about to fall over one last time.

The sea troll picked him up and pinned him against the wall. Half dead, Cyrisus winced as the sea troll brought its face up to his. It opened its leech-like mouth wider than Cyrisus had ever seen it before and began licking its lips. It was going to bite his head off! Cyrisus tried to kick it but his strength had left him. He tried to scream in horror but the only thing that came out was a groan as he choked on his own blood and spit.

The troll’s mouth was so close to Cyrisus that the trolls tongue began lapping his face. Suddenly, one of the other trolls tapped the one holding him on the shoulder. It gurgled. Immediately, the troll’s mouth closed and it turned away from Cyrisus to face the other troll. The two gurgled angerly at each other. Then, the troll pinning Cyrisus turned back to him. It glared before smacking him against the wall a few more times. The sea troll took a deep breath and roared in Cyrisus’ face, showing its many rows of teeth. The sound was like a massive brass instrument violently playing a single, off-key, note. The sea troll then threw Cyrisus to the ground and two other trolls dragged him away. The beaten man was dragged past the cells where the others were being kept, he saw them staring back at him, horrified. Then everything went black.

***

Adam walked along the sea floor off the southern coast of Musa Point. He was investigating the spot where the sea trolls had emerged. Not knowing what to prepare for, had on his white graceful garb fitted with the diving equipment he had obtained during a different adventure. Slung over his shoulders were two satchels taken from the sea trolls and filled with rocks to allow him to walk along the ocean floor. To help see, Adam had in his hand a torch from the Bruma Tree. Legend had it, the green fire created by burning the wood of the Bruma Tree could not be doused except by the deadly cold touch of the Wintertodt. Adam would put this to the test, and it worked. The torch’s fire burned even at the bottom of the sea!

Adam clumsily climbed over rocks, coral, the sunken wreckage of long forgotten ships and the skeletons of their crews. Colourful fish of all shapes and sizes swam around him. Between the fish and the coral, the sea was as beautiful as it had ever been. He couldn’t find any sign of the sea trolls however. Any footprints, if there had been there at all, had been swept away. Adam was not ready to give up. He pulled the amulet out from his pocket and looked at it, perhaps there were clues. Nothing new, the same carved image of a tentacled monster on the front and a lobster on the back.

Suddenly, Adam saw a long, green tentacle on the corner of his eye. He gasped. Adam jolted away from it, falling over onto his back and nearly breaking his diving helmet on a rock. He got a good look at the tentacled creature that had startled him.

_Karambwan… the Karamjan octopus!_ Adam thought to himself. _‘Friends of Karamja’ That’s right! They’re native to these waters!_ He smiled and sighed with relief. _Let’s hope they’re as friendly as the name suggests…_

There were several of them now. The octopi bobbed up and down as they gathered around him. Adam had never seen a swimming karambwan before. They danced together in the shimmering water, they were magnificent. Adam got back up on his feet and picked up the bruma torch. It was still burning its green flame. Adam held the amulet up, comparing the image of the tentacled creature to one of the karambwan in front of him. They were both tentacled, but it was not a match.

Without warning, one of the karambwan snatched the amulet from his hands. It wrapped its tentacle around the string and swam out of reach. Adam tried to jump after it but couldn’t. The swarm of karambwan began to swim away from him. He chased after them at the fastest pace he could manage, often tripping over rocks and coral that covered the ground. They weren’t swimming very fast and would stop whenever Adam got too far behind.

_Are they leading me somewhere? Best be on my guard._ Adam kept a firm grip on the torch and another on the sword at his belt as he bounded along the ocean floor, following the karambwan.

The karambwan led Adam to a cave he hadn’t seen before. It was no natural looking cave either. At the entrance were two pillars that had been chiseled to look like a kraken’s tentacles. The tentacles reached to the top of the entrance which featured the massive carved visage of a terrifying beast of the sea. The creature was nasty and deformed looking with a bulbus head and sixteen eyes made from glowing red gems. The eyes of the statue seemed to stare into Adam’s soul. Leaving little to the imagination, the carving looked almost real. Adam looked up and saw even more stone tentacles lining the front of the cave, all leading into the monster’s face. Unlike many of the other stone surfaces under the sea which all had at least a thin layer of algae growing on them, the stone carved tentacles and face were perfectly clean. The karambwan holding the amulet let it go. The amulet fell to the sandy ground. Adam walked over and picked it up. Comparing it to the carving above the cave, it was a perfect match! Holding the bruma torch in front of him, Adam nodded to the karambwan and made his way into the cave.

The cave was very, very dark. The bruma torch would prove its worth that day. The cave turned out be an enormous hallway, this was no naturally formed structure. It was wide enough for about ten men to walk through it side by side and long enough that Adam couldn’t see the end of it even with the help of his torch. Adam walked over to the wall of the cave. A school of tiny eyeless fish swam around his helmet.

Illuminating the wall with the torch, Adam saw carved patterns on tiles that decorated the walls. He had never seen designs of that sort in all his travels. Every inch of the wall was filled with unique symbols but they all followed the same unusual design formula. It was some sort of language or a form of mathematics that he couldn’t comprehend. He continued down the hall. The patterns on the walls began to include pictures of figures. As Adam peered closer the figures were surprisingly detailed images of sea trolls. There were thousands of them, they appeared to be fighting monstrous crustaceans, Lobsters as tall as they were. Adam looked at the flip side of the amulet.

_Lobsters…_

Adam stepped away from the wall, fearing he’d run out of air by the time he looked at all the details. Focusing on the path ahead, he continued forward. The ground of the cave wasn’t sand, it was stone. And just like the rest of the cave, it was perfectly clean. Finally, he came to the end of the hall.

The hall opened up to a massive chamber with a domed ceiling as though it were an ornate theatre. The whole room was round, with even more patterns and carved sea trolls lining the walls. Adam counted two dozen tentacle pillars evenly spaced along the circular walls around him. The pillars climbed up the wall and reached to the top of the dome ceiling there they met at another statue of the horrible tentacle beast reaching down from the ceiling. Adam gasped and jumped back when he saw it at first. The beast had two more of it’s horrible slithering limbs reaching down from the ceiling to a slab at the center of the room. The tentacles were curved above the slab making a full circle between the two of them.

The walls and ceiling of the domed room were tiled, just like the hallway. Each tile had its own pattern and depiction of a sea troll. Adam hadn’t noticed before, but every troll was different from each other in some way. Each one had unique patterns on their arms and back but they all were still the same shape and size. He touched one of the tiles, it broke off the wall. Adam hastily caught it before it hit the ground. He took a close look at the stone tile, flipping it over. There was another design on the reverse side!

_What the fuck?_

There was artwork on the flip side but the patterns were different. Instead of wavy lines of the sea troll art, these lines were square but just as beautiful and mathematically perfect as before. But what shocked Adam the most was the figure depicted on the tile. It wasn’t a sea troll, it looked more like a human or an elf. There were slight differences from a human here and there, most notably the pointed ears, but it was certainly not a sea troll. The person on the tile appeared to be female. Her flowing hair seemed to float in space behind her. Adam squinted as he tried to examine the tile. It was hard to see the specific details of the piece from behind his diving helmet but it appeared that the elfish woman on the tile was wearing some kind of jewel on her pointed ear.

Using the tip of his sword, Adam pried a few more tiles off the wall. They had the same patterns of square shaped lines and a human-looking figure on their reverse sides as well. Adam set the tiles down and headed toward the slab at the center of the circular room.

The tentacles coming down from the statue on the ceiling formed an enormous circle that resembled a portal frame. He stood before the center slab. Even the slab was gigantic. There was a map on the slab’s front. It didn’t seem to be a map of anywhere he knew about. The text was in the old Kharazi language of all things. Adam strained to read the names of some of the cities and castles on the map. He had never heard of any of them before.

In various places all over the map, Adam found strange circular imprints. That was when it hit him. The map was inverted from what he was used to. This was a map of the sea! The cities and castles depicted were underwater. He marvelled at the map, wondering how many of these cities still remained and what kind of people lived there. He looked around the waters west of Piscatoris where he had killed the sea troll queen. There was a castle there. It had a wall around it and several tall towers with pointed spires making up its keep. There were tentacles coming out from the windows and below the walls. None of the other castles on the map looked like that. Then he looked to where Piscarilius House would be. Not far off from the shore, there was a circular imprint.

_The portals in the temple!_ He thought to himself.

Adam felt around the imprint with a gloved hand, it was the same size as the amulet. He pulled the amulet out and fit it into the imprint. A perfect fit, but nothing seemed to happen. He pulled the amulet out and the imprint began to glow. A deafening noise began to blast from the portal frame. Adam stood up and watched as a green portal began taking form inside the frame. With the power of a whirlpool, the portal began sucking him in. Adam braced himself. As the portal grew stronger, Adam could no longer resist and he was thrown through the portal.

Instantly, he fell out the other end, several feet from the ground. He landed hard on a stone floor, shattering the glass in his diving helmet.

“Shit! Shit! Shit!” He cursed to himself as he did his best to shake the broken glass from his graceful top. At least he wasn’t underwater anymore. Shards of glass tinged as they fell to the floor alongside dozens of flipping fish who had been unfortunate enough to also get caught by the portal along with him. Adam looked up at the portal as it began to close. The stone frame was missing several pieces. What was left of the ancient frame seemed to be held in place by the power of the portal. As the portal closed, the massive stones making up the portal fell back to the ground. Adam jumped back, just barely avoiding getting crushed by the debris.

Adam held up the bruma torch and observed his surroundings. He was in the central chapel of the sea troll temple under Piscarilius, or rather what was left of it. The statues and art that would have once decorated the chapel had been blasted to pieces by dynamite and cannon fire. The few tentacle pillars that were still left standing all lead into what would have been another statue of the monster but was now a massive hold in the wall. Such a destruction of ancient architecture would have been a shame had he not known what this temple was being used for. The slab at the head of the chapel still had blood on it from the murders that had taken place less than a week prior. Adam donned his cape and pulled up his hood. He needed to find a way out. He walked behind the slab and looked up at the blasted hole in the wall where the statue overlooking the altar slab would have been. The hole went much deeper than expected. From his viewpoint on the ground, he couldn’t see how far it went. In front of him on the ground was the damaged head of the monster’s statue. Its teeth were all shattered, and the top of the monster’s bulbous head was cracked beyond repair but the sixteen shining red gems for eyes were still in place. Adam smirked.

_I’m surprised the pirates didn’t steal these when they ransacked this place._

Thinking of his debts, Adam seriously considered taking the gems for himself. In his younger days, he would have done it no question, but he couldn’t bring himself to do it now. He simply placed his hand on one of the gems. They were red but they shined brighter than any ruby he had ever seen. They seemed to give off their own light. In fact, when he put his hand on it, all sixteen gems began to shine brighter and brighter. Adam had to stand back and cover his eyes for a second. Suddenly, a trickle of water began pouring on his head. The water quickly turned from a trickle to a stream. There was a rumble from the ceiling.

“Oh Saradomin, don’t do this to me I swear I…” He prayed as he backed up away from the head and over the slab.

The rumbling got louder. More and more water poured from the hole above the altar where the statue’s head once stood. Adam started to run down the central aisle to escape. More holes opened along the walls of the chapel and more seawater rushed in. The waterfall became a wave. Adam desperately tried to run but the raising water level slowed him down.

“FUCK!” He cursed for his life.


	3. The Desecrated Chapel

Adam sloshed frantically down the flooding chapel. All he could hear was the deafening sound of rushing water spewing from the chapel walls. He stumbled and bounded toward the entrance as fast as he could, lifting his knees as high as they would go to avoid tripping on the ever-rising water that splashed all around him. The chapel entrance was an enormous circular port in the wall, the bottom of which was several feet off the ground. It was the only way in or out by the looks of it. A fine entrance if one were swimming, but otherwise it was impossible to reach without a ladder. Adam looked back at the port holes which lined the chapel walls behind him. They were still going strong, flooding the room with seawater. Adam then snapped his attention back to the entrance.

_Shit… How did those sons of bitches even manage to carry a pack of screaming girls in that way?_

All the statues that would have once stood proud along the sides of the chapel had been destroyed with dynamite and cannon fire. All that was left of them was rubble and dust now obscured by the rising water. There was nothing left to climb on. Adam desperately looked around for an idea. The water was at his hips and rising.

There was a lone chain hanging along the wall beside the large, circular entrance to the chapel. It reached up to the ceiling. He was saved! He laughed to himself and waded over to it. Adam’s brain let out a sigh of relief as he grabbed the chain and started scaling the wall only a few feet from the entrance. He looked down at the water below him and smirked behind his graceful bandana. Adam ran back the forth along the wall as though he were a bob on a large pendulum, swinging further and further with each oscillation. The old chain creaked and grinded under the stress. On the final swing, right before he was going to make his jump, something felt wrong. A loud mechanical click echoed through the chapel. Adam felt his heart stop for a beat and his panic came rushing back to him.

The chain detached from the ceiling and Adam was sent screaming back down to the water below. He hit the cold seawater with a splash. The top of the rusty chain hit the wall on its way down, blasting it to orange dust. Adam turned away quickly to avoid getting it in his eyes. He was treading water now, and his arms were getting tired, there was no way he would be able to last long enough to wait for when the water level reached the entrance.

_Damnit Cyrisus! It’s way higher than ten feet!_

Suddenly Adam noticed a rectangular outline appear on the wall beside him. It wasn’t there before. It was a hidden doorway!

_So that’s how those bastards got in!_

The hidden door struggled to open against the pressure of the water around it. Adam waded over to the door. Drawing his sword, he stuck the blade into the crack and pried the door open enough to get his fingers around it and pulled. No luck. Holding his breath, Adam went under the water and put his legs against the wall and pushed while still gripping the door. His sword was washed through the doorway by the current as the hidden door slowly began to open wider and wider.

_Saradomin, come on, give me this one!_

Adam’s arms were exhausted. He needed to breath. He was seeing stars and his head was pounding but he kept at it. His will to survive was all he had left.  Slowly but surely the door opened enough for the current to hold it in place, allowing him to fall through and into the hidden room, swept up by the violent current. He snatched his sword from the ground as he splashed past it. The bruma torch was shut off and hooked onto his belt but he could still see the vague shadows of prison cells as he was washed down the dark hall by the unrelenting seawater. There was a doorway coming up in front of him. He reached out and grabbed the bars of one of the cells. Holding on tight, he straightened himself up against the current, edging his way to the door, fighting the running water with all his strength. Adam kicked down the door. The door’s lock fell off its fasteners with a clunk. Adam charged through before the current could snatch him up again and drag him further into the prison.

The doorway took him to a massive corridor. In the distance to his right, Adam could see the entrance to the chapel. The water was just starting to pour from the bottom of the opening, it would soon become another waterfall. He turned tail and ran down the corridor in the opposite direction with the rushing water following close behind him.

The corridor twisted and turned. Adam didn’t care where he was going as long as the water was behind him. Detailed tentacle carvings lined the walls. Adam booked it down the corridor until he came to what he thought was a dead end. Digging his heels and skidding to a stop, he nearly hit the wall in front of him. He looked up, the corridor continued vertically upward.

Adam’s eyes followed the stone carved tentacles as they made their way up the vertical corridor. He sighed in frustration. The water had caught up to him quickly and was already at his hips, rising faster than ever. Digging his gloved fingers into the tentacle’s carved details, Adam began to climb his way up. He climbed as fast as he could. His cold, wet boots and gloves threatened to slip at any time. He jammed his fingers so far into the stone carvings that it hurt, refusing to fall back into the water. Finally, he reached the top and he crawled onto the ledge.  Adam’s arms and legs were pounding from exertion. He fell onto his back and peered down at the water several feet below. It was still rising, albeit slowly.

_That should buy me some time…_

He caught his breath and turned toward the path ahead. His jaw dropped. The way ahead was blocked by rubble, an actual dead end. Adam climbed up the blockage, frantically looking for a space in the debris to crawl through or something to move out of the way. There was nothing. None of the bricks or rocks were loose, this blockage had been there for years. He cursed and slid back down to the corridor floor. There was a small splash as he did so, the water had caught up to him once again.

Adam hastily paced around, looking for something, hidden doors, windows, anything to help him get out. As he walked, something he stepped on made a scraping sound. It was a metal grate of some sort. Adam looked around the base of the wall for where it could have come from. Finally, he found a hole in the wall, exactly the size of the grate. There were stripped fasteners around the hole. Peering in, Adam saw that the hole was a long tunnel. At the end of the tunnel, he could see the bottom of a ladder. Adam grimaced. He hated small dark spaces more than anything in the world. The water was beginning to accelerate, it was already passed his ankles.

_Come on Kananga, suck it up and grow a pair…_

Adam gritted his teeth and punched the wall. He stayed there, eyes closed and head down, gloved fist pressed hard against the wall. When he was ready, he took a deep breath and got down on his stomach to crawl through the small tunnel. The water was already an inch higher than it had just been.

He crawled with his head as high and he could get it to avoid the rising water. He slowly worked his way toward the end of the tunnel where the ladder was. The longer Adam spent in the tunnel, the tighter it felt. The rising water slowed him down and made it feel as though the whole tunnel was shrinking, slowly crushing him as he crawled forward. Soon, he could no longer avoid it. The rising salt water soaked the bandana he was wearing over his face. The water began seeping through it. This made it nearly impossible to breath without taking in seawater through his mouth and nose. Adam was suffocating!  He tried to remove it but the tunnel was too tight and so couldn’t reach with his arms. He screamed and shouted as he wriggled inside the tunnel. He needed to get out! Adam pushed on the tunnel ceiling with his legs and back but the stone bricks would not budge. It wasn’t long until he was completely submerged in the water. All he could see ahead of him was a shimmering light at the end of the tunnel. He crawled his way toward the light, unsure if he was crawling his way toward sunlight or the welcoming embrace of death. Either way, it meant getting the hell out of there. He came to his senses and pushed forward.

Finally, he made it to the ladder. Adam had never stood up faster in his life. The water was only to his knees, but it was rising quickly. He looked up and could see the sun seeping though the grates on a manhole cover above him. Adam quickly climbed the ladder, easily outrunning the rising water. He reached up to open the manhole cover. It wouldn’t budge. He pressed harder. Still nothing. There were four latches holding the cover down. The water was at his hips and rising. Adam unsheathed his sword from his belt and tried to reach the latches, no luck. The water was at his shoulders now.

_So damn close, are you kidding me?_

“Hey! I need help! Somebody! Shit!” He banged on the manhole cover. “Somebody open this fucking th…” He was cut off by the water as it completely submerged him. Adam was trapped under the cover, inches from freedom.

Adam kept banging on the manhole cover with the pommel of his sword as hard as he could. He was about to pass out when suddenly the latches unhooked and he threw open the cover. He leaped out and crawled along the sand, coughing up salt water. He nearly ripped the white bandana off his face, desperately filling his lungs with air. Adam got on his knees and faced the person who saved him. It was a small gnome child with a t shirt, green pants and a cone hat.

Adam laughed as he took the kid’s hand in his, shaking it rapidly. “Thanks kid, you saved my fucking life!”

“Swearing won’t get you to the place to you want to be any faster than kindness, understanding, patience and compromise!” The gnome child replied. He put a king worm into the large green man’s gloved hand.

“Words to live by.” Adam chuckled. He smirked and ate the worm. Not the most elegant of gnomish food, but he had barely eaten all day. He put his hood down and pulled out his cigar case, its contents were still dry. Adam grinned as he bit the tip off one and stuck it in his mouth.

“Are you a swamp person?” The gnome asked. “Is that why you live in the sewer?”

Adam let out an irritated grunt and narrowed his eyes at the gnome child. He stood up and lit a cigar with the bruma torch. His hair had fallen over his brow. His heart was still pounding from the excitement in the temple. Adam looked awkwardly at the child who was still staring up at him. He was never any good with kids, he offered the gnome child a cigar.

The gnome child rolled his eyes, turned around and skipped down the deteriorated street. Adam shrugged and put the rejected cigar back in the case. He observed his surroundings. He knew the place all too well.

_Piscarilius House, Great Kourend… What the fuck’s a gnome doing in a hell hole like this? Stay safe kiddo…_

Piscarilius was the first house travelers and traders would see upon arriving by boat. It was the home of Kourend’s fishermen and merchants. Half the house was built on wooden docks. The other half was on the beach. Both halves were always falling apart. Piscarilius was the poorest and most crime ridden district of Kourend by far. Despite supplying half the kingdom’s food, starvation was common in the Piscarilius house. To feed their families, many Piscarilius citizens had given up fishing or trading and turned to crime, a much more reliable way to get by what with all the merchants passing through. This gave the Piscarilius house its reputation as a haven for Kourend’s worst deadbeats and gangsters. A not entirely undeserved reputation that often put them at odds with the Shayzien house whose citizens served as the kingdom’s police and army. The last duke of the Piscarilius house, Lord Dalton Piscarilius was largely responsible for running the house into the ground. After his death, his daughter, Lady Shauna, was tasked with cleaning up her father’s mess. The whole house reeked of rotting fish, or at least Adam hoped that’s what was rotting.

Adam knelt down beside the manhole he had just climbed out of and closed the latches on the cover. The water from the temple was still sprinkling from the grills like a tiny fountain. The adrenaline rush was starting to subside and the bleak atmosphere of the Piscarilius house took hold, the sound of the sea crashing on the docks, the creaking of ships cranes along the jetty interrupted by the occasional starving groan or hopeless whimper. Adam got up, sighing, and took another pull on his cigar. The foul smell of dead fish was replaced by sweet taste of ranarr. He stepped off the beach and onto the dock. It was high time he asked Lady Shauna what she knew about that cult and the so-called “sea god” whom they worshiped.

***

Cyrisus barely managed to put his hands in front of him before his face hit the stone tiles. Shakily hoisting himself onto his hands and knees, he looked to his left and then to his right. He was flanked by the two sea troll guards that had carried him off. Then he looked up. He was in the center of a massive temple. At the head of the temple was an enormous stone carving of a sea monster, just like the one he had seen before under Piscarilius, only without the red eyes, in their place were sixteen holes. The statue was hollow, like a mask. Carved tentacles incorporated themselves into every pillar, every bench and every statue in the temple but they all eventually made their way back to the sea monster’s eyeless visage.

Ahead of Cyrisus was a slab, similar to the one in the temple under Piscarilius. His blood went cold and he shuddered as he remembered the cult and their sacrifices. The image of the girls’ blood flowing off the sides of the slab was still fresh in his mind. He remembered the screams coming from the chapel through the large window and echoing down the twisted halls. In time each scream would become a high-pitched gargled mess before finally being silenced. Then there would be a short thud followed closely by another round of screaming and the process would repeat over and over until Cyrisus finally made it to the entrance of the chapel. He had seen their screaming faces frozen to their corpses as they lay in a heap before the altar slab.

“Damn!” He grunted. That would not happen to him or to any of the others. This time, he thought to himself, he’d save them all. Cyrisus started to stand but was met by a fierce prodding from the troll guard’s tridents readied at his neck. He fell back down to his hands and knees. He clenched his fists in frustration.

The whole room began to shake, just like the dungeon had before the tentacle showed up. A feint slithering noise could be heard amongst the rumbling of the dark, stone walls. Then there was silence. All that could be heard was Cyrisus’ own nervous panting. Finally, a loud, deep voice growled from the mask at the head of the chapel.

“How dare a human attempt to stand in my presence … in my inner sanctum…” The voice muttered, the walls began to shake once more.

“What…” Cyrisus did his best to put up a brave face under his furrowed brow. “What… are you? What do you want?” His attempts at bravery were betrayed by his refusal to look up from the floor.

“The parasite is ignorant of what it bites but it bites all the same, only to be swatted. The typical arrogance of the surface. Bold only when it is unaware of its foolishness.”

The voice was speaking calmly, intentionally disinterested, never once did it raise. Nevertheless, it boomed all around Cyrisus. The very tone of the voice shook his heart, literally. The voice resonated with his innards, crushing him with every sentence.

“Look up.” The voice said.

Cyrisus stared down at the stone floor in defiance. The temple shook.

“I am your master here…” The voice muttered. “Look up… now… stare into my eyes.”

Cyrisus kept his gaze glued to the floor until one of the sea troll guards grabbed him by his hair and yanked him upright on his knees. The black-eyed and bruised Cyrisus was face to face with the eyeless statue looming over him. The temple shook and the holes on the statue’s head went dark. Something was behind the hollow face of the statue now, wearing it like a mask. Two by two, the sixteen holes on the face of the enormous statue began to glow red as the monster behind the mask opened its eyes.

“You murdered them…” The statue growled.

“What!?” Cyrisus shouted through his teeth.

“The enlightened ones… you were scared... so you murdered them… all but their leader, who took his own life in my service…”

“The cultists?”

“Is that what the surface calls those who frighten them?”

“They were killing innocent people!”

“A necessary sacrifice. But the enlightened ones… they did not have to die.”

“What are you talking about!?” Cyrisus shouted up at the statue.

“It felt good for you to kill them didn’t it? You enjoyed it… I could feel the joy you felt as you slashed them with your whip one by one!” The walls shook as the eyes grew brighter... “You enjoy bringing harm to those who understand things that you do not! Things that frighten you. Things you cannot fight with words. You could not comprehend why the sacrifices were being made, so you turned to violence. Those poor and starving citizens of Piscarilius were no match for you. Even now, I feel your rage toward them, you wish you could have hurt them more… To accommodate for your own inadequacy!”

Cyrisus clenched his fist.

The statue continued. “The violent surface raised you and now you are a violent man. You have already attempted to damage me...”

The tentacle with the eye from the dungeon slithered up Cyrisus’ back and in front of his face. The sea trolls raised their tridents, stopping him from doing anything.

“You are insignificant. You cannot bring me any harm… but it seems my children have harmed you.” The voice mocked while the eyeball examined Cyrisus’ black eye.

“Who the hell are you!?” Cyrisus roared, prepping himself for a fight.

The voice began to laugh. The eyeballed tentacle slithered away and Cyrisus looked back up at the stone mask. The eyes behind it began to glow brighter than ever. The temple shook violently as the rumbling sound filled the sanctum. Cyrisus looked to his left and then to his right. He gasped in horror. All around him, tentacles slithered toward him from the walls and ceiling. The swarming tentacles crawled over the statues and benches until Cyrisus was surrounded.

Cyrisus fell on his back in shock. He got up quickly, the trolls backed off with their tridents but the looming tentacles blocked the doors and windows. He frantically looked around the room. There was no escape. The putrid tentacle swarm continued to flood the room from all sides. Everything in the sanctum resonated with his captor’s booming voice as it spoke.

**I am the ruler of the sea.**

**It is my hand which drags and drowns those who cannot swim.**

**It is I who decides when ships be doomed to sink to the bottom of the sea and remain for eternity.**

**I am the one who commands the waves and rising seas to crush those who live too close to my shores.**

**I am the very spirit of this ocean!**

**I AM THE SEA TROLL KING!**

The tentacles wrapped around Cyrisus’ arms and legs, picking him up. They were slippery and squishy but impossibly strong. Cyrisus squirmed in an attempt to escape but the Sea Troll King only tightened his grip on the man. Cyrisus was brought face to face with the stone mask of the statue. He was nearly blinded by the glowing red eyes of the monster behind t, yet he could not look away. Cyrisus could only see a vague outline of the monster’s horrible face behind the stone.

“Do not worry yourself, whelp.” The King said. “You are not to be sacrificed like those on Zeah.”

Cyrisus said nothing. He simply stared back at the creature’s pupiless glowing eyes through the mask.

“I shall have no sacrifices on this special occasion… But nevertheless… my children must eat…”

“What…?” Cyrisus muttered, still hypnotised by the red eyes of the Sea Troll King.

“There’s been a change of plans. A feast shall be held in the honour of my newly adopted Queen! You will fill the bellies of my children on this glorious day!” The tentacles tightened around Cyrisus as the King spoke. “But first, the desecration of my temple on Zeah must not go unpunished… My children shall pay a visit to your friends in the Piscarilius house!”

The King let out a maniacal laugh and the tentacles loosened their grip on Cyrisus. He tried to hold on tight but his hands quickly slipped off the monster’s slimy limbs, causing him to fall to the floor below. Cyrisus landed standing upright on the stone stairs in front of the altar. He felt a terrible pain in his ankle jolt through his body from the impact. Cyrisus hollered in agony as his ankle gave way and he tumbled down the stairs. His face slapped against the hard, stone floor in front of the sea troll guards. Still in shock from the landing, he slowly got to his feet and felt himself up. A sprained ankle, but nothing was broken. Before he could even think of running away, the sea trolls grabbed him by the arms and craned him around to face the statue once more.

Cyrisus grunted in pain from his ankle. The sea trolls gurgled at the statue.

The sea troll king’s eyes started to dim behind the stone. The temple shook once more and the tentacles began to recede back into the walls. “Take it to the spire… it cannot be kept with the other fish.” The King’s voice boomed one last time.

The guards said nothing as they dragged Cyrisus away.

 


	4. Piscarilius Invaded

Adam was still dripping with salt water. His boots squeaked as he walked along the rickety wooden docks that made up half of the Piscarilius district. Fishermen, pirates, sailors and traders turned their heads as the tall green man strode by. He could overhear their whispers of lizardmen and swamp people amongst the sounds of creaking cranes and squawking gulls along the jetty. Adam did his best to pay them little mind. The Piscarilius house and its people were not exactly in a place to judge others. They were just as cold, wet and hungry as he was. Their desperation lead many to superstition and blame.

_The perfect targets for an up and coming cult…_

Adam combed his hair back with his gloved hands and shook out his dripping beard. The docks creaked under his feet as Adam walked up behind the port official. The official was a snooty, spoiled, mustachioed man. A sharp contrast to everyone else on the docks, the local gangsters must have been treating him well.

“Excuse me.”

“Just a moment, oaf.” The official snorted, not looking up from his clipboard.

Adam narrowed his eyes and waited. The port official kept his head down and walked right past him heading down the dock. Adam followed closely.

“I need to speak to Lady Shauna Piscarilius!”

The official continued to ignore him and went about his routine. He stopped at a fisherman’s boat. The fisherman was unloading his cargo onto the docks. The official picked up a fish from one of the barrels to inspect it.

Adam took the fish from the official’s hand and tossed it back to the fisherman.

“You’re good!” Adam shouted to the fisherman. “Go about your business.”

The confused fisherman shrugged and continued to unload.

The official turned around and glared at Adam. “I’m afraid our Lady is out at sea at the moment and will not be taking visitors.” The port official snorted with his back turned. “Now please, leave me to my work, I have more important things to do than argue with swamp men!” The official said with a scorn. He walked away, his eyes were glued to his clipboard once more.

Adam looked to his left. Lady Shauna’s ship was docked by the wharf with no one on it. He growled and tossed the butt of his cigar off the jetty. Adam strode up behind the official and turned him back around. “She’s out to sea without her ship?” Adam spat at the official, gesturing to the enormous Piscarilius flagship on the far side of the harbour.

The port official wrinkled his nose at the large green man. “That’s of no concern to you!” He snapped before wrenching himself from Adam’s grip and carrying on.

Adam grinned. “Maybe the Queen can help me then. I’ve heard she’s the one who runs the show around here anyway.”

The sneering official turned to face Adam and raised an eyebrow.

Adam turned to walk away. “Thanks for the help!” He laughed as he stepped off the dock and back onto the beach in the center of town.

The official opened his mouth to shout something rude at the man but was interrupted by a group of angry sailors.

The gangsters and crime lords of Kourend had too much power over the Piscarilius house for the Council or Shayzien police to do any good. Many officials and high-ranking police officers were paid out by the crime bosses to serve them as political puppets. Lady Shauna knew this just as much as anyone. And so, she did much of her work ruling her house from the underground. She started her own gang called the  _Saviours of Kourend_  under the alias _The Queen of Thieves_. The  _Saviours of Kourend_  would serve the people of Piscarilius by annexing smaller crime families, adding to its own power and influence over the house allowing them to dispose of the corrupt from the bottom up. Very few knew the true identity of The Queen of Thieves, but many people respected her more than the Lady of the house herself, not knowing they were the same person. In their eyes, Lady Shauna Piscarilius was another deadbeat ruler, just like her father. The Saviours were based out of a hideout in the sewers which they called  _The Warrens._  Not many knew this, but Adam did. If Lady Shauna was anywhere, that’s where she was.

Adam made his way to the sewer entrance in the middle of the town. He looked around making sure there were no guards watching while he lifted the manhole cover. Adam climbed in. As he reached out to close the lid, he made eye contact with the gnome child from before. He was sitting on a stoop across the street. The child shook his head disapprovingly at the man.

“Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it!” Gnome child scolded. “And I may not be there to save you again!”

Adam nodded and pulled up his bandana and hood. He climbed down the manhole, pulling the cover shut.

Adam climbed down the ladder and stepped onto the sewer floor. He immediately began to miss the warm sun above ground. Surprisingly, the Piscarilius sewer did not smell as bad as the district did above ground. Very few citizens had running water in Piscarilius these days, let alone toilets and pluming. Adam thought about the Piscarilius house as he walked through the dark sewer tunnel. As much as Adam despised it, he was often the first to come to the district’s defence. Whenever there was a food shortage, drought, natural disaster, disease outbreak, or any other difficulty in the kingdom, it would always be Piscarilius that got hit the hardest. Its reputation as a haven for gangsters and pirates caused it to get little sympathy from the other houses. Many of its citizens had nowhere else to turn except crime, Adam knew what that was like all too well. He rubbed his lower back through his shirt and sighed. He held his hand over the spot where the jailers at Port Sarim had branded him. That was all behind him now. Adam continued to walk down the tunnel. He was almost at  _the_   _warrens_.

The sewers were very quiet. Aside from the occasional scurrying rat, all Adam could hear was the sound of his solitary footsteps as they echoed through the sewer tunnel. He grew used to the pattern.

Then the pattern changed.

_I’m not alone._

Adam raised an eyebrow. He could hear another set of footsteps between his own, and then another, and another.

Adam’s blood ran cold. He furrowed his brows and gritted his teeth. He put his hand on the handle of his sword as he walked. The footsteps were no longer echoes now. They were right behind him! He readied himself, judging his stalkers’ distance by the sound of their boots on the sewer floor.

_One…_

_Two…_

The footsteps were getting closer and closer.

_Three!_

On three, Adam turned around, drawing his dragon sword as he did so. It immediately clashed with a pirate’s cutlass. Adam jumped back. He glared forward, holding his sword in a defensive position. Three pirates stood in front of him, swords drawn.

“What’re ye doing down here, cur?” A ginger-bearded pirate on the right barked, waving his curved blade at Adam.

“I don’t want a fight, I need to speak with the Queen of Thieves!” Adam barked back, stepping away slowly in the direction of the warrens.

“Don’t move!” The middle pirate shouted.

The ginger-bearded pirate stepped forward, still pointing his sword at Adam. “And what makes ye think the Queen of Thieves would want to speak to a green bilge rat of the swamp such as yerself?”

“I’ve done work for her in the past!” Adam said. He raised his hand to remove his hood and bandana.

“I told ye not to move!” The middle pirate lunged forward.

Adam quickly stepped to the side, avoiding the pirate’s sword. Out of sheer reflex, he smacked the pirate in the head with the pommel of his dragon sword. The pirate’s tricorn crumbled and the he fell to the ground, knocked out.

“Not here to fight eh laddie?” The ginger-bearded pirate laughed.

“Fighting a pirate be dangerous to yer health!“ The pirate on Adam’s left growled.

“I didn’t mean it! I just want to talk to your boss.” Adam said as calmly as he could, still creeping backward. He stepped over the downed pirate laying under him.

The two pirates exchanged glances and charged at Adam, swords raised. Adam sprung into action, his blood raced. The ginger-bearded pirate slashed with his cutlass. Adam parried the attack. Then the other pirate attacked. Adam blocked the attack with his sword and punched the him in the face. The pirate stepped back, stunned. Adam kicked the pirate in the chest. The pirate fell to the ground. Adam turned to the ginger-bearded pirate. He was hiding behind his cutlass in defence. Adam sheathed his sword. His heart was beating wildly, adrenaline rushed through his body. He locked eyes with the pirate, holding his hands out in front of him. “I don’t want to fight you.” Adam repeated.

All of a sudden, Adam was hit by an overwhelming force from the side. Somebody grabbed Adam’s arm. He was knocked off balance before being thrown over his attacker’s hip. He landed hard against the sewer wall and splashed in the shallow water below. The attacker still had a firm hold on his arm. Adam’s arm wrenched as the attacker pulled Adam to his knees with his arm in a lock above him. He tried to get up and get his captured arm free, but the attacker’s lock only tightened. He grunted in pain. Craning his neck to get a look at this attacker, Adam saw a cloaked figure whose face was obscured by a dark hood. All Adam could see was a cocky grin under the hood.

“Pathetic…” The cloaked figure scoffed. The attacker had a female voice. The cloaked figure ripped Adam’s hood back and looked into the eyes of her defeated opponent.

“Oh.” She grunted. “It’s you.”

The cloaked figure let go of Adam’s arm and kicked him away.

Adam rolled to his feet and entered a clumsy, yet confident combat stance. He brought his hand to the hilt of his blade, ready to draw it again.

The pirates gathered between the two of them. They drew their cutlasses and pointed the sharp blades at Adam’s neck.

“No need for any of that, boys.” The cloaked female said as she gently pushed herself past them to the front of the formation. “This one’s harmless!” She put her hands on her hips and let out a deep and hearty laugh.

Adam panted as he watched the woman laugh amongst the confused pirates. He stumbled to stay on his feet, still disoriented from being smacked against a wall.

The woman turned so her back was to Adam and she lowered her hood.

_Red hair… Short red hair…_

She removed her cloak in a flourish and tossed it to one of her pirate lackeys. Adam stepped back as the woman spun around on her boots to face him. It was Lady Shauna Piscarilius, The Queen of Thieves.

“Take him to my tent.” She barked.

The pirates did as they were instructed. They poked and prodded Adam with their swords, guiding him down the sewer path all the way to the  _Saviours’_  base.

***

The Queen of Thieves was leaning back in a chair with her feet on the desk at the far side of her private tent when Adam was pushed inside. The desk was new. She wasn’t paying him any mind. Adam watched Lady Shauna in silence as she fiddled with a sharp knife. She was wearing the same leather jerkin, blue leather boots and fencing trousers that she was wearing the last time Adam had seen her.

The two of them were alone in the room. An awkward silence hung over the air. Their last meeting hadn’t gone particularly smooth. Lady Shauna had offered him a chance to join the Saviours of Kourend full time after he did a couple of errands for her. Adam ultimately declined and the insulted Queen of Thieves had him chased out of the district. Ever since then, Adam had been reluctant to even step foot in Piscarilius house, let alone inside the Warrens.

It was Shauna who broke the silence. “What the hell are you doing back here?” She said in her usual authoritative tone. She was still toying with the knife in her hands.

“I need your help.” Adam replied.

“I owe you no favors.”

“Then I’ll owe you.”

Lady Shauna rolled her eyes. “I heard you’re flat broke, in debt to a dragon.”

Adam paused, trying to come up with a decent retort.  _How the hell did she know?_  He grunted and continued with what he was saying. “Can you tell me what this is?” He asked. He pulled out the amulet he had taken from the sea trolls on Musa Point and placed it on the desk.

Lady Shauna sighed and dragged the amulet along the desk before finally picking it up and looking at it. She eyed it closely. “Never seen it before, looks pretty old though.” She felt the lobster side with her thumb. Then she flipped it over. For a split second, Adam could see a sign of surprise on Shauna’s face when she saw the image of the tentacled monster on the reverse side of the amulet. She felt the image of the squid-like creature with her thumb. “This isn’t the original image. Either that or this side was added much later.”

“How do you know?”

“The image of the squid is way sharper, nowhere near as faded. Plus, it’s a completely different art style from the lobster image. Also, the metal was cast differently here.” Shauna continued to flip the amulet over and over, comparing the two sides. “Where’d you find this?” She asked, finally turning to look at him.

Adam smirked. It seemed he had finally perked her interests. “I got it from a sea troll.”

Shauna set the amulet down on the desk and began playing with the knife again. “I’ve never heard of sea trolls wearing jewelry.”

“An army of sea trolls attacked Musa Point.” Adam replied. “They had hundreds of amulets like that one that they were forcing onto people as they dragged them into the sea.”

Shauna furrowed her brow. “I’m sorry to hear that.”

Adam sighed. “One of them was a man named Cyrisus.”

Shauna stopped playing with the knife. She stared forward, saying nothing.

“I’ve been investigating the attack all day, I think the tentacled monster on the amulet is the sea troll leader.” Adam continued. “I fought and killed one like it a few months ago in the Piscatoris fishing colony.”

Shauna continued to stare forward, clearly in deep thought. “And is examining the amulet all you needed me for? Why not go to a librarian or a jeweller?”

“I found a map of the sea in a cave off the Musa Point shore. They have portals all over the world. That’s how they get around.”

Lady Shauna flinched when Adam mentioned portals.

Adam stepped up to the desk. There was a map of Gielinor on it. Adam drew a circle with his hand in the sea where the sea troll castle was. “Their castle is just west of the fishing colony, that’s why they attacked it! I don’t know why they attacked Musa Point, but I’ve got to save those people!”

Shauna let out a cocky laugh. “So, you’re going to be needing a ship? Is that it?”

“Just one to drop me off there. Are there any voyages heading out that way?”

“That’s a pretty big favour for a man who can’t pay his debts.” Shauna flirted. “Why should I help you?”

“That squid thing on the front of the amulet, it’s a perfect match for the statues I’ve seen in the temple. I bet you noticed it too. If the statues are any clue, this thing is a hell of a lot bigger than the kraken I fought at Piscatoris.”

“…What temple?” Lady Shauna asked. She looked at him in feigned confusion.

“I know you hired Cyrisus to deal with a cult operating under the Piscarilius district. I thought you could tell me something about who they were and maybe give some information on that temple and the sea god the cultists were worshiping.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” She muttered. Her fingers wrapped tightly around the knife in her hands.

“Don’t play dumb with me Shauna! You know what I mean!” Adam snapped at her. “There’s a temple under Piscarilius. It’s ransacked and flooded now but it’s still there!”

The boots slid off the desk and slapped onto the floor. Adam jumped as Lady Shauna stood up and stabbed the knife into the desk. Their eyes met. Adam could feel the woman’s gaze tearing into his soul. Adam stared right back.

“Was!” She snapped. “There WAS a temple! I had it blasted to pieces and now it’s gone forever. Cyrisus killed every single one of the perverts who were hiding down there! That’s the end of it as far as I’m concerned! It’s not my problem!” She stepped right up to Adam as she shouted at him, never breaking eye contact.

“The portals in the center chapel are still working. They’re how I got here from Musa Point.” He hissed, glaring down at her as she stood uncomfortably close.

Shauna’s brow loosened and she stepped back. “What…? But I saw them get destroyed!”

Suddenly, they were interrupted by a loud bang from the surface followed by a violent rumble. The impact nearly knocked the two of them of their feet. The blast was followed by another and then another. Shauna held onto Adam as the two of them struggled to keep their balance. She looked up at him and scowled before pushing him away. They both drew their swords. Pirate war-cries and cannon fire from the surface echoed through the sewers.

“What the hell is going on up there?” Lady Shauna shouted at the entrance to her tent.

A hooded pirate rushed into the tent. He was out of breath and his sword was drawn. “Captain!” He panted. “The district! It be under attack!” It was Ish, Lady Shauna’s navigator.

Lady Shauna’s eyes widened. “Who dares attack my house?!” She demanded.

“I was on my patrol along the docks. Monsters! Leach headed curs! Dozens of em!” The pirate replied through his heavy breaths. “They came from the shore and the sewers! I… I ran here as fast as I could!”

“Sea trolls!” Adam snapped.

Sword in hand, Lady Shauna ran out the door of the tent. Adam and the hooded pirate followed suit.

“Captain! Yer cloak!”

“Fuck it!!”

Lady Shauna, Adam Neeson and a handful of pirates scrambled out of the sewer and fought their way through the town. The Piscarilius district was in utter chaos. Sea trolls charged through the streets and into the ransacked houses, dragging their ragged residents out of their homes. The all too familiar screams and cries as could be heard amongst the firing of canons and clashing of cutlasses against tridents. Some houses had caught fire and the dead of both sides littered the streets in all directions. For Adam, the scene brought back memories of the night before. Except this time there was no alcohol to soften the horrors.

Lady Shauna gripped her sword tighter than ever as she looked around and saw her district burning before her eyes. She watched her terrified people as they ran past and into the safety of the Hosidius and Arceuus districts. She let out a cry of anger as she charged a group of sea trolls. Adam and the hooded pirate followed her lead.

It wasn’t long before the army showed up. Rows of soldiers from the Shayzien house rushed through the streets and began fighting the sea trolls alongside the pirates and sailors.

A Shayzien captain ran up to Lady Shauna and the group. He took off his horned Shayzien helmet revealing his face. He was a young man considering his rank. “M’lady!” He shouted so that he could be heard over the sound of the cannons as they blasted away at a group of retreating sea trolls. “We have the bastards on the run! We’ve evacuated as many civilians as we can but some have been captured and dragged into the ocean!”

Lady Shauna slapped the young captain. “Keep fighting! Don’t let them escape with any more of my people!”

The Shayzien captain cowered before Lady Piscarilius, nursing his reddened cheek. “Yes ma’am!” He shouted as he stood back upright. The captain tilted his head to Adam. “Kananga! You’re a sight for sore eyes!”

“As are you and your men!” Adam shouted as he pulled his sword out from a dead troll’s forehead.

***

Adam lit up a cigar. Next to him were Lady Shauna Piscarilius and Ish, the hooded pirate. All the sea trolls were either dead or safe below the waters.

“How many are missing?” Lady Shauna asked a Shayzien guard.

“We’re still counting who’s missing from the people who escaped into the other houses. But from what they tell me, at least two dozen have been taken by the sea trolls and many more have been killed.”

“Damn…” Adam muttered to himself as he slammed his fist on the barrel beside him.

The people of Piscarilius house began returning to the district in swarms. The house fires had been put out and the smell of fish was replaced with the smell of gunpowder and smoke. Adam looked around and sighed, he never thought Piscarilius could look any worse than it already did.

Lady Shauna buried her head in her hands, she looked like she was about to weep. But instead of weeping, she growled. She stood right up and began punching the wall behind her. Over and over, Shauna yelled and punched the wall. Then, suddenly, she stopped and turned her head to Adam.

Shauna drew her sword. She knocked Adam’s cigar from his hand with the tip of her cutlass and pointed the blade at his face.

Adam glared at her.

“You! You said you knew were their castle was!”

“I do.”

“Well then, it looks like you have yourself a ship and captain!”

Adam nodded and grinned. He stood up and shook Shauna’s hand.

“Ish!” Shauna yelled at the hooded pirate.

The hooded pirate stumbled upright. “Yes captain!?”

Shauna pointed her blade at the hooded pirate. “Ish, make preparations to disembark on my flag ship! We’re going after them! Be sure to load the charges!”

“Ay ay cap’n!” Ish replied before running off down to the docks.

“Charges?” Asked Adam, puzzled.

“Never you mind!” Shauna snapped at him.

Suddenly, the barrel beside Adam began moving. He watched as the barrel tipped over and gnome child crawled out from under it.

“Is it safe to come out yet, human?” The gnome child peeped. “Or does the cruelty of war persist?”

“Come here kid, you’re safe now, I still owe you my life.” Adam said with a smile as he picked up the child and set him on his knee. The young gnome was barely taller than Adam’s shins. “Do your parents have a telephone I can borrow?” Asked Adam. “There’s something and somebody I need delivered to me as soon as possible.”

The gnome child nodded.

 


	5. Charted Course

In the tallest tower of the Sea Troll castle, Cyrisus lay alone on the floor of his cell. The adventurer was heavily beaten and bruised. Everything hurt, especially his ankle which made it difficult to walk or even sit upright. His pounding head made him delirious. Cyrisus couldn’t tell if his weak state of mind was due to the beatings from the sea trolls or the fact that he was half starved having not eaten since the previous day. The man groaned and held his arms over his angry stomach as it rumbled. He was lying on his back, staring up at the ceiling. The last time he was in a situation like this there had been someone to rescue him. There was little hope for that this time however. Cyrisus would have to take matters into his own hands, for himself and for everyone else who was trapped in the dungeon below. He tilted his head and examined the room once more. He hoped to find something in the room that he hadn’t seen before, he wasn’t having much luck.

Compared to the dungeon, this room was hardly a prison cell. Complex patters lined the walls of the room not unlike the ones he saw in the dungeons. However, these walls were tiled. They were a sharp contrast to the brick walls he had seen in the dungeon. The only things keeping Cyrisus from leaving were a locked door and a set of decorative metal tentacles that barred the one outdoor-facing window. It could easily have been used as a guest bedroom if it had the right furniture. The room was dimly lit by glowing green gems held by stone tentacles that sprouted from the tiled walls.

Cyrisus looked to his right, there was a spot on the wall where a tile was missing with no brick behind it, leaving only a dark hole. He narrowed his eyes. Cyrisus wasn’t about to fall for that again. He turned to his left. All he saw was the door to his cell. This door was not barred the way the dungeon door had been. It was just a regular locked door. It appeared to be made of coral that was so aged it was hard to tell exactly what colour it was supposed to be. There was a slot in the center of the door and a small port hole higher up that was barred with metal tentacles similar to what was found over the outside-facing window. He sighed, the door seemed like the best option for now.

The wounded man grunted as he picked himself up and limped over to the door. When the pain from his leg grew too much to bare, Cyrisus threw himself the rest of the way using his good leg. He slapped against the tiled wall beside the door. Cyrisus shot a glance at the hole in the wall, making sure nothing was watching him. He then reached over to the door, grabbed the tentacle bars over the window and pulled himself over to it. He peered through the tiny window. His field of view from the cell wasn’t great but he couldn’t see any guards. Cyrisus crouched, putting his weight on his one good leg and stared through the slot below the window. Biting his tongue, Cyrisus stuck his arm through the slot. He felt around for any sign of a lock or handle. He felt what seemed like a small metal latch. Cyrisus’ spirits raised as he fiddled with it.

Something gurgled angerly from the other side of the door.

Cyrisus’ heart skipped a beat and his eyes shot wide open. He tried to pull his arm back in as fast as he could, but it was too late. Cyrisus felt a cold, clawed hand wrap around his arm.

There was more angry gurgling from outside. Cyrisus pulled on his arm with all his might against the gurgling creature. He pushed off the wall with his good leg. He was winning the tug of war but the creature still had a firm grip on the man’s arm and was not planning on letting go. He managed to get his arm all the way through the slot of the door with the sea troll still hanging on. Cyrisus gripped his wrist with his other hand and violently wrenched the arm of the sea troll.

The sea troll squawked in pain and let go of Cyrisus’ arm but not before scratching him with its sharp claws.

Cyrisus flew back after being let go by the monster. He skidded as he fell onto the cold, stone floor. The sea troll glared at him through the window on the door. Cyrisus watched the troll lick its bloody claws clean with its long, serpentine tongue. It honked at him angerly and tottered out of view.

Cyrisus looked at his forearm. It was bleeding badly from the sea troll’s claw. A cloud of blood began to rise from the wound. Cyrisus cursed to himself. He ripped his shirt off and tied a sleeve around his wounded arm to stop the bleeding. He tightened the knot with his teeth. Escaping through the door would be out of the question. At least as long as it was guarded.

Suddenly, there was a large mechanical sound coming from outside. Cyrisus got up and limped over to the window. He peered through. Looking down and around, Cyrisus saw the Sea Troll King’s massive tentacles wrapped around the spire and other parts of the castle. He shuddered to imagine how big the thing actually was.

From his view at the top of the spire, Cyrisus could see the castle wall. The extremely tall barrier appeared to completely encircle the keep. The wall was black and made from, large, unnatural-looking stone bricks. The ocean floor around the wall seemed dead and decayed, a complete wasteland. However, beyond the barren undersea plains surrounding the castle, Cyrisus could see a galaxy of vibrant colours. He squinted to get a better view of the coral reefs and majestic plants that lay outside the border of the sea troll’s domain.

An enormous mountain range painted the horizon at in every direction, it was a sight to behold. He had never seen mountains so tall and vibrant in all his life. Cyrisus held the window bars tights as he looked outside in awe. He wished he could go out and explore the mountains and reefs. He hadn’t felt this way since his early days as an adventurous youth. Such possibility and potential. This was why he was an adventurer, to explore new landscapes and see the world over. His unquenched wanderlust turned to frustration. Cyrisus tried to shake the prison bars loose to no avail. All he could do was look out the window and dream of being far away from the sea trolls and their perverted wasteland of a kingdom.

Cyrisus looked around for what could have made the mechanical noise from outside. That was when he noticed the enormous castle gate, the largest, sturdiest looking gate he had ever seen. Even the great doors of Falador couldn’t compare. Looking at the gate and the tiny sea trolls standing along the walls made him realise how impossibly tall the tower actually was. Cyrisus watched as the gate was pulled open by loud gears. The castle began to shake as the King’s tentacles tightened around the spire. Cyrisus gasped. The sea trolls were bringing in more prisoners.

Many of the prisoners wore rags, others looked like pirates. There was no doubt in Cyrisus’ mind as to where these prisoners had come from, Piscarilius.

“No, no, damn it! No!” Cyrisus shouted down from atop the spire. He banged on the window bars but they were so sturdy that they made little sound. The tiny figures on the ground below him payed him no mind.

Cyrisus turned away from the window and sunk to the ground. The carved tiles scratched his bare back and his ankle hurt, he didn’t care anymore. Even if the attack on Musa Point was not his fault, the attack on Piscarilius certainly was. There was no denying that, the Sea Troll King said it himself. If he couldn’t get out of here, those people would have died because of him! The feeling made him sick.

***

The enormous flagship of the Piscarilius House crashed through the waves in the sea west of the Piscatoris fishing colony at a breakneck speed. Zanik of the Dorgeshuun leaned against the railing on the starboard beam. She had never been on a tall ship in her life, let alone one this big.

The hot summer sun beat down on Zanik’s pale green skin. The vastness of the blue sea spread beyond the horizon in all directions. She had never been out this far to sea before. It was frightening in a way. Zanik had grown up in the caves beneath Misthalin. She was used to solid walls being within eyesight wherever she looked or at the very least, a roof above her head. The sea reminded her of the first time she had ever seen the sky. Just looking up at the clouds would make her knees knock. Now the sky was all around her.

The cave goblin adventurer looked up to the helm. Lady Shauna stood proud at the wheel as she steered her beloved ship. The Lady of the House was wearing a long blue jacket, long gloves that went down her forearm and a captain’s hat. They were hardly the clothes of a Kourend house ruler and more those of a pirate. Zanik hoped Adam knew was he was doing trusting this woman. Gnome child sat on Shauna’s shoulders. The child had snuck aboard the ship as a stowaway. Rather than throw him overboard like would be expected of your usual pirate, Shauna made gnome child her honorary cabin boy for the voyage. It seemed the woman was kind enough.

Many of Lady Shauna’s crewmembers were quite vocal in their opposition to Zanik boarding the ship with them. They claimed it was bad luck to bring a goblin on board. Lady Shauna ignored their complaints and let her on anyway. Zanik, with her lack of sea legs was far too clumsy to be of any help on board the ship. Not that she knew the first thing about sailing anyways. It was all she could manage to hold onto the railing for dear life. And so, Zanik sat aside as she watched everyone do their job, feeling somewhat guilty for the free trip.

Zanik looked up the deck at Adam who was leaning against the front railing on the ship’s bow. Having finished the lunch she brought him, he was enjoying a cigar and looking out to sea. Zanik wrinkled her nose. She absolutely hated the smell of ranarr, but Adam couldn’t seem to get enough of it. “It keeps the beast at bay.” Adam would say, whatever that meant. Laying beside Adam was the diving apparatus and helmet he had asked her to pick up for him.

Earlier that morning, Zanik was beginning to get worried when Adam hadn’t come up from his dive at Musa Point. Nevertheless, she stayed on Karamja to clean herself up and help the festival goers repair the damages to the buildings and tents on Musa Point. The festival was supposedly still on, but nobody was in the spirit of celebration. Then, several hours later, a gnome on a glider arrived to recite Adam’s profuse apology for not updating Zanik on his status sooner. The gnome then asked Zanik to come with him to Piscarilius to see Adam. The endearingly poetic yet embarrassed and awkward message was unmistakably Adam’s sincerest prose. Moments later, Zanik was flying hundreds of feet above the ground on a gnome glider.

Zanik turned around and looked up the ship’s center mast at the crow’s nest. After the glider trip, the very thought of being that high up again made her shudder. The cave goblin wobbled up to the bow. Being on a ship at sea was something she would have to get used to. She nearly fell while stumbling around a large ballista-like contraption loaded with a nasty harpoon at the front of the boat. She landed hard with her hands on the railing.

Adam tossed his cigar butt off the bow and greeted Zanik. “How was the flight?” He asked her with a sincere smile.

Zanik tried to put on a tough face. “Never make me do that again!” She pretended to scold him.

Adam laughed.

“It was fun, but terrifying.” Zanik admitted. “I have feet for a reason and I think I prefer to use them.”

Adam patted Zanik on the back with a smile and looked out to sea. She could tell there was something on his mind.

“So, Lady Shauna’s quite the character, isn’t she?” Zanik probed him.

“The Queen B.” Adam replied as he laughed to himself. “A noble scoundrel if ever there was one.”

Zanik tilted her head in curiosity. “Do you trust her?”

Adam turned back to the bridge. “She’s a gangster, Zanik.” Adam replied gravely. “I trust her when she says she going to get even with the sea trolls for attacking her district. I trust that she’ll start a fucking war with the ocean if it means she gets her revenge in the end.”

Zanik looked over to Shauna as well. She was still at the helm with gnome child on her shoulders. “And beyond that?” Zanik asked.

Adam paused and swallowed.

Shauna leaned around the wheel to look at the two of them across the ship and raised an eyebrow.

Adam turned to Zanik, a serious look on his face. “Just keep an eye on her while I’m down there. Make sure she doesn’t try anything stupid.” He then turned back to look at the water. “Not that there’s much you could do. She’s the captain.”

Zanik caught herself reaching to hold Adam’s hands in hers. She stared forward too. There wasn’t anything to see. “Are you sure you can handle this?” Asked Zanik. “What’s your plan exactly?"

Adam paused. The fact that he did so was clear enough for Zanik that he hadn’t really been thinking about what he was doing.

“I’m going to… go down to the castle and… save everyone.”

Zanik was concerned now. Adam was normally better than this. “Do you even know what’s down there?!”

Adam sighed. “I don’t know, I haven’t had time to do any real research on this. All I know is that these sea trolls must have conquered some humanoid kingdom a long time ago and are ruled by a Kraken who claims to be the god of the sea.”

“And you’re gonna fight it?”

“If I have to.” He said. “It wouldn’t be the first time.”

Zanik raised an eyebrow.

Adam turned to face the goblin. “Zanik…” He said. “I’m sorry if I made things awkward last night.”

Zanik gasped, she could feel her cheeks going red. “No! It’s fine! You were drunk.” She covered her face as best she could. She should not be blushing!

Adam smirked and looked back ahead. Zanik sighed.

“How’re the sea legs coming in?” Adam asked with a smile. He looked so happy to be next to her.

Zanik narrowed her eyes at him as she straightened herself up. “They’re coming, a ship this size is quite the jump from a canoe.” She answered. “But I think I’m getting the hang of it.”

“That’s the spirit.” Adam said. “To tell you the truth, I’m not great on a boat either, but I’ll take it over teleporting.” A cheery smile could be seen in his blue eyes. It was those eyes that made her love him back then. They were the gateway to the man he really was inside. Whenever he laughed or cried, he showed it in his eyes. They often betrayed his many attempts to hide how he really felt.

When Zanik had first met Adam, he was already called Green Kananga of the Legends’ Guild. He was the first human Zanik had ever met, and an adventurer no less. The two of them connected right away, it was as though they spoke a language nobody else did. It warmed her heart how much of a genuine interest he would take in what she had to say. It seemed like everything she did and said fascinated him and vice versa. Zanik was a well-respected adventurer amongst the cave goblins and other subterranean peoples, but on the surface, she was a nobody. When she finally learned about the guilds and Kananga’s stature, his kindness and connection with her began to feel like condescension. _Be nice to the newbies, they’re delicate._ She felt challenged and dwarfed by him on the surface. It frustrated her. She wanted to prove to him that she was just as good an adventurer as he was.

On their first adventure together, Zanik was killed by horrible men in the Lumbridge forest. The first thing she saw upon being revived by Juna the serpent was the sincere, tear-filled gaze of Green Kananga of the Legends’ guild. His beautiful blue eyes sparkling with tears met with hers. To this day, that was the only time she had ever seen him come close to crying, something he claimed he never, ever did.

It was at that moment, in Juna’s cave, that she knew she meant something to him too, that the connection they shared was real. Together, they foiled the HAMs plot to destroy her tribe. They finally got to fight alongside each other. They backed each other up, they depended on each other. Neither would have been alive that day without the other. Later that night, they expressed their feelings to each other by the bonfire. Then they fucked.

The two would go on adventures together after that. However, it soon became apparent who the star of the show was, it wasn’t Zanik. She wasn’t even in the champions’ guild yet and here she was adventuring with a Legend’s guild member. Zanik wanted to make a name for herself on the surface, and to do it on her own. She wanted to find out for herself what it meant to be the chosen commander of the goblins without his help.

Zanik just wasn’t the kind of person who could keep up a relationship like that and neither was Adam for that matter. They both knew it. Love and families were just weaknesses for adventurers and were ultimately unfair for everyone involved. That’s what they both believed. For that reason, they decided not to pursue their feelings any further in order to avoid being hurt by the inevitable. Over time, the two began to drift apart. When she drank with him at the lobster festival, she believed she was finally getting over him romantically. She found that she was growing used to him now, he was predictable. His quirks, his mannerisms, they were becoming less and less fascinating to her. But still, being around him felt right, as much as she didn’t want to admit it. Zanik couldn’t deny that some of her most interesting and eventful adventures had been ones she’d shared with Adam. This weekend alone, she had flown on a glider for the first time and now she was on a real pirate ship on a voyage to hunt down a sea monster!

Zanik tried her best to spark up another conversation. “Have you ever been to Piscatoris before?”

Adam turned to her. Seemingly pleased that it was Zanik who started the conversation. “You mean Piscatoris or Piscarilius?”

“Piscatoris, the fishing colony. That’s where we’re headed isn’t it? Or at least off the coast of it.” Zanik responded. She was somewhat insulted that Adam thought she might not know the difference between the two.

“Of course! I used to go fishing there all the time. What about you?” Adam smiled.

“I’ve gone hunting around the area. Never fishing though. What’s up there?” Asked Zanik.

“Monkfish.” Adam replied. He made a wide shape with his hands as though he was holding a giant cheeseburger. “Big, ugly, horrible looking things!” Adam spread his lips wide and gnashed with his teeth. “Rarrgh!”

Zanik laughed.

“They’re a lot of fun to catch though. Cyrisus and I used to…” His voice trailed off.

Zanik’s smiled turned to a concerned frown. “Adam… It’s not your fault, you did everything you could.”

Adam hit the ship’s railing with his fist. Then he turned to Zanik. “The first time I ever went to Piscatoris, it was being invaded by sea trolls. That was the first time I had ever seen or heard of them.” Adam said as he looked off the bow. I managed to fight them off with that Wise Old Man from Draynor, you know the one.” Adam said with a smirk that was betrayed by the worry in his eyes. “Then their queen showed up.”

Zanik said nothing. She just listened intently.

“A terrifying tentacled monster with a leech mouth. A kraken.” Adam swallowed. “Zanik, I’m worried that I pissed them off by killing their queen. I don’t know if anyone is still alive down there. But I’ve got to try and save them. If they are still alive, they won’t be much longer. If I _can_ do something to help them but I _don’t_ , then as far as I’m concerned, their deaths will be by my hand. Including Cyrisus, and how half the Piscarilius house. Damn it!” He pounded the railing again.

Zanik groaned in her head. Adam was no exception to the masochistic guilt of your typical hardcore Saradominist. She often wondered if Adam would be a different man if he didn’t believe he was being so closely watched from above. “It’s not your fault. It’s not. You’re not the one behind those attacks, you didn’t command the sea trolls. You can’t blame yourself for this.”

Adam sighed. “I’m going to save them, Zanik. I’m going to save them all.”

Zanik just nodded. There was no fighting him on this. She just hoped he’d be alright.

The two of them just stared out in front for a while until Adam broke the silence. “You know what that thing behind us is?” Adam asked, pointing with his thumb at the deadly contraption behind them.

Zanik blinked, she had half fallen asleep. She turned around toward the contraption behind them. “It’s called a scorpion, right? It fires a harpoon.”

“That’s right! 360-degree swivel left and right, with 180-degree vertical. Three-man crew! You know what it’s used for?” Adam asked excitedly.

Zanik thought about it. “Taking down a dragon?” She guessed.

Adam was about to shake his head but then stopped to think about it. “It’s possible, it’d be one hell of a shot but yeah! The harpoon and rope would rip a dragon right out of the sky. I wish I had one of those when I fought Galvek.” He chuckled.

Zanik smiled at Adam. Back when they were together, the two of them would read and share stories of heroes and slayer masters of old battling terrifying beasts. Sometimes they would even hunt monsters together. The two were quite a team, no doubt about that. She couldn’t deny to herself that she had the time of her life fighting the sea trolls along side him the previous night, she missed that feeling. “What’s it really for?” Zanik asked, pointing back at the scorpion.

A female voice answered. “It’s for boarding enemy ships and hooking sea monsters. Nothing escapes the Piscarilius flagship.”

Zanik turned around. It was Lady Shauna Piscarilius.

“Come over to the starboard beam for a briefing.” Shauna commanded Adam. She didn’t even look at Zanik. “We’re almost there.”

Adam nodded at Shauna as he picked up the diving helmet and followed the pirate lady to the starboard with Zanik close behind. Zanik didn’t realise until now. Lady Shauna’s accent was quite similar to Adam’s. There were slight differences, most notably, Shauna didn’t use many of Adam’s butchered contractions. However, Lady Shauna’s inflections and pronunciations of specific words were closer to Adam’s way of speaking than Zanik had ever heard from anyone on the mainland. _Was Adam from Kourend?_ He always said he was from Asgarnia.

The gnome child was still on Shauna’s shoulders. He waved at Adam and Zanik. Zanik awkwardly waved back at him.

Everyone gathered for a meeting at the starboard beam as the ship floated in the middle of the sea. Zanik, Lady Shauna, Adam and gnome child were surrounded by about three dozen pirates.

It was Shauna who spoke first. “The sea troll’s home should be somewhere around here, assuming our directions are correct.” She said as she picked Gnome child up off her shoulders.

The gnome child ran over to the starboard railing and looked down to the sea below.

“Aye captain.” Replied Ish the navigator. A sea dog who was born old, Ish was full of superstition and prejudice. “We’re puttin’ a lot of faith in the swamp man. How do ye know he’s got the right coordinates?” He asked, pointing his sextant at Adam. “I ain’t ever heard any legends of sea trolls this far out.”

“I trust he read the map right, it’s one of the only things the green fool is good for.” Shauna laughed.

Adam grunted irritatedly with his arms folded.

Ish narrowed his eyes. “It would be a shame to waste our… resources if there’s nothing down there, captain.”

Shauna folded her arms. “If there’s nothing down there then our friend will come right back up and I’ll cut his dick off and hang him with it.” She replied while shooting Adam a venomous glare.

Zanik watched Adam flinch for a second. He must have sensed that Shauna wasn’t joking, at least not entirely.

Lady Shauna walked over to the starboard and leaned on the railing beside gnome child. All eyes were on her. Suddenly, she shot upright. She turned and gave Zanik a wicked smile as she walked toward her. “It’s time to put those cave eyes of yours to good use!”

“Not the crows nest…” Zanik muttered.

“Of course not the crows nest!” Lady Shauna laughed evilly. “Just the opposite in fact!”

Zanik took a step back. What was this woman thinking about?

Shauna motioned to Adam. “Give her your diving gear. Goblin, put that on.” She nodded to gnome child and pointed to a long coil of rope that was laying beside him. “Cabin boy! Tie that rope around the goblin.”

Everyone was starting to realise Shauna’s plan. Adam interjected. “Shauna, you can’t be serious...”

“That’s Captain Shauna on this vessel, nave!” Lady Piscarilius stepped up to Adam and managed to stare him down despite being half a foot shorter than him. She looked up at him as though she planned to bite his head off. “We need so survey the area anyway. It would take too much time sending you up and down. She’s the only one who would be able to see the ocean floor clearly while remaining close enough to the ship.” Her words were spoken with a poisonous spit.

Adam’s gaze turned cold. His eyes and brow on full defence. His lip kinked as he scowled back at the woman. The two of them were like a pair of wolves locked in a battle of intimidation over a spot of land.

Zanik broke through the tension. “Captain Shauna, I can’t swim that well.” It was the truth. The rivers in the Lumbridge caves were shallow enough to allow anyone who fell in to wade to safety. She never had to swim for any extended period of time.

Adam and Shauna broke their gaze from each other and turned to face Zanik.

“You’ll be lowered down by rope and weighted. If anything goes wrong just tug and we’ll pull you up.” Shauna replied.

Zanik said nothing.

Shauna walked toward Zanik now. Her terrifying glare was now focussed on Zanik. “Disobeying the Captain is mutiny, goblin.” She said coldly.

The next thing Zanik knew she was being lowered into the ocean with a rope tied around her legs and waist.

Zanik descended slowly down the hull of the ship. She passed the rows of large hatches that concealed the ship’s enormous cannons. She instinctively closed her eyes and held her breath as she entered the water despite the diving gear she was wearing.

When Zanik finally opened her eyes, she saw the ocean floor hundreds of meters below. Her cave goblin eyes, protected by the glass of the diving helmet could see clearer, further and brighter than any human would have been able to. To Zanik’s eyes, it was as though she was hanging in mid air. The sudden realization of how high up she was made her gasp and jump. She nearly dropped the bag of weights she was carrying to keep her from floating.

On the deck of the Piscarilius flag ship. Adam along with a handful of pirates were holding firmly onto the Zanik’s rope. Adam was so nervous for Zanik, he could have held the rope himself. As Zanik jumped, the rope tugged. “Pull her up!” Adam shouted. The pirates obeyed.

Shauna raised a gloved hand. “No!” She snapped. “She just got down there, give her a minute.”

Adam grunted and angerly shook his head as he and the pirates continued lowering Zanik down.

Zanik descended deeper into the sea. Her view of the ocean floor grew clearer and clearer. It was absolutely beautiful. The ground ran the gamut of all shades of blues and greens. A rainbow of coral and fish of all shapes and sizes could be seen spanning for miles and miles. She had no idea such colours existed in nature. In the distance, she could see far off mountains and canyons grander than anything she had ever seen on the surface. She even saw some sunken ships leaking with gold and jewels.

The cave goblin slowly reached for the rope and she pulled herself upright. Zanik was careful not to tug too hard as to cause the crew to think she was in danger. She scanned the ocean floor for any sort of dwelling that looked like it could be home to sea trolls. Zanik didn’t know what she was looking for. She imagined a cave, or a set of tribal hovels made of coral, but she saw nothing of the sort. Zanik paddled with her arms to turn herself around. Then she saw it.

On the ocean floor, only a few hundred meters away from her was the castle. It was the most enormous castle Zanik had ever seen. The tips of the massive spires sprouted from the castle’s keep. The castle itself was a bronzy brown and was surrounded by massive black walls. Zanik swore she could see tiny green-blue figures walking atop the walls, sea trolls. The keep and its spires seemed to be wrapped in something, something that was a very dark green, practically black. Zanik squinted. She saw the wrappings begin to move around the castle. The castle rumbled. Suddenly, Zanik knew exactly what the wrappings were. They were tentacles! Zanik was looking at a kraken, the largest ever. The trolls’ god of the sea rested in the depths with his impossibly long tentacles wrapped around the keep of his castle, just as Adam predicted. Zanik, from position hanging vulnerably from the rope, watched the creature as it tightened its grip over the keep. The land around the sea troll castle was dead and grey, there was no coral, no seaweed or fish. The difference was night and day.

A feeling of dread came over Zanik. She couldn’t explain it, but she felt like the monster knew where she was. It was as though its eyes were on her. Dread soon gave way to panic. It was time to get out of the water. Zanik tugged on the rope.

“GET OUT OF MY DOMAIN, CAVE RAT, GOBLIN SCUM. HOW DARE YOU COME HERE WITH THE MAN WHO SLEW MY QUEEN. LEAVE THIS PLACE AT ONCE BOTTOM FEEDER, PALE TRASH WHORE! I’LL KILL YOU AND DRAG YOUR CORPSE TO THE BOTTOM OF THE SEA WHERE YOU’LL NEVER BE FOUND.” The terrifying voice boomed in her head. It shook her to her core and rattled her bones.

The goblin screamed in her helmet. She had never felt more unsafe in her life. Dropping her bag of weights, Zanik clambered for the surface as fast as she could. Her attempts at paddling did her little good in the way of getting her out of the water any faster. Her helmet and diving gear made her movements clumsy and the water slowed her down. She tugged violently at the rope in an attempt to climb it. All the while, she felt as though she was being chased.

Meanwhile on the deck of the ship. Adam felt the rope as it tugged and shook like crazy. “That’s the signal! Get her the hell out of there!” Adam shouted.

Shauna nodded and joined to help the men heave at the rope.

Gnome child had his hands on the rope too but was quickly lifted off his feet as everyone pulled.

Within seconds. Zanik’s hands appeared on the starboard railing. Adam and Shauna lifted the panting goblin over and onto the deck.

“It knows we’re here!” Zanik screamed as she pulled off the helmet and diving gear and ran across the deck of the ship to the port side. “It’s horrible!”

Shauna acted immediately. “Raise the sails! Mark our location and take us a mile away from here!”

“Aye-aye, captain!” Ish the Nagivator shouted back as he ran to the wheel.

“Zanik! Are you alright?!” Adam shouted as he ran to comfort the goblin. He wrapped the wet goblin in her poncho.

“What did you see down there?” Asked Shauna, kneeling beside Zanik.

Zanik panted, the hot sun beat down on her, but she was ice cold. “It saw me.”

“What did?!” Asked Shauna.

Zanik lay down on her back as her pounding heart began to slow down. She looked up into Adam’s concerned eyes. “The sea god, it guards the castle.” Zanik replied. She spoke between breaths as she tried to calm herself. “It knew were I was, where _we_ are, it knew everything! All I saw were its arms. They wrapped around the keep.”

“Just like the art I found…” Adam muttered.

“It spoke to me.” Zanik gasped.

Adam looked bothered. “What did it say?”

Zanik’s heart began to pound again as she remembered the creature’s horrible voice. She pointed up at Adam. “It knows you’re here too. It hates you for killing the Sea Troll Queen.”

Adam visibly cursed under his breath. “What about the castle? Did you see the prisoners?”

“No.” Zanik answered. “Only sea trolls. They patrol the walls surrounding the keep. Adam, that castle is impenetrable, even without the monster guarding the it. The only way in is a massive gate at the front.”

“I’ve snuck into castles before.” Adam said as he lifted Zanik up off her back.

Zanik sat upright and shook her head. “It can see everything.”

Adam looked away and bit his lower lip. “I’ll figure something out.”

Adam and Zanik looked over to Shauna who was standing up with her arms folded and her back to the two of them. “It’s your funeral…” Shauna muttered, looking over her shoulder at Adam.

***

Cyrisus lay motionless on the cold stone floor. The pulsing of the walls from the Sea Troll King’s slithering tentacles and his own racing mind were the only things keeping him from passing out from starvation and pain. He knew he had to think of a way out of the cell but his mind was on fire with rage, it clouded his thoughts. He wasn’t angry at the sea trolls or even their king, he was furious at himself. The longer he lay there, the more he would shout at himself and the harder it became to think of a plan. It was an endless spiral of self loathing and frustration, not unlike his incident on the Lunar Isle.

In front of Cyrisus was a coral plate with the drooping skeleton of a half-eaten herring. That was his dinner. The thing had looked pretty appetizing in his starved stupor but after three bites he was ready to throw up. Cyrisus stared in silence at the herring’s lifeless eye as it looked up at the ceiling. That would be him if he didn’t get out of there soon.

Suddenly, Cyrisus heard a rustling from the hole in the wall. With all his might, he turned toward it and listened. He could hear the usual gurgling of sea trolls and the sound of a door not unlike his own being unlocked and opened. He shuffled closer to the hole as best he could, the pain in his ankle surged through him. He covered his mouth with his hand to deafen his own pain-stricken grunts as he did his best to listen without being heard by the sea trolls.

There was a woman in there. She sounded terrified. “No! Please! Let me go!” Cyrisus could hear the woman scream through her tears.

There was more angry gurgling from the sea trolls and then the door was slammed shut and locked with a sharp clang. Cyrisus flinched. He continued to listen as he heard the woman fall onto a bed and weep. He wanted to say something, but he didn’t know what to say. Cyrisus may have gotten over his fear of fighting but he still wasn’t any good at starting conversations. Even with everything on his mind, there was a subsect of his brain dedicated to yelling at himself for how awkward he must have seemed to Kananga’s friend, Zanik, the night before. Cyrisus continued listening to the crying woman, trying to think of what to say to comfort her.

Cyrisus rolled onto his back. Even that little exertion caused him to grunt in agony. The woman’s loud sobbing suddenly stopped. Cyrisus gasped and covered his mouth.

“Hello? Is someone there?” The woman sniffed.

Cyrisus went red. Even through her tears, Cyrisus could tell the woman had a beautiful voice. He didn’t dare say a word. With any luck, she would just forget she heard anything at all.

“Please! Whoever you are. Please talk to me! I’m so scared!”

Cyrisus cursed in his head, there was no going back now. “Yes, I’m here!” He blurted out.

“And who are you?” The woman asked. Her voice sounded much more stable now. “Where are you?”

Cyrisus took a deep breath. “My name is Cyrisus, _Red Ardougnian_ of the Legend’s guild.” He paused and smiled. Reminding himself of his name and Legend title raised his spirits. “I think I’m in the room above yours. What’s your name?” He continued with greater confidence.

There was silence. Cyrisus waited intently.

Suddenly, the walls began to shake, and a familiar slimy eye popped out of the hole in the wall.

Cyrisus groaned and scowled at the eye. He could only hear a muffled reply from the woman. She started asking him something. He couldn’t manage to make out any words she was saying. Cyrisus cursed and hit the stone wall with his weak fist out of frustration.

 


	6. Under The Sea Again

The magnificent, multi-decked, flagship of the Piscarilius House folded its sails and lowered anchor in the middle of the open sea west of the Piscatoris fishing colony. The enormous anchor made a massive splash as it broke the surface of the water, plummeting until it hit the ocean floor with a thud that echoed up the chain.

Everyone onboard prayed that they were far enough away from the Sea Trolls’ castle. Nobody knew what was going to happen now that their enemy was aware they were coming. Zanik’s horror from her encounter under the sea was evidently contagious. A feeling of dread and despair hung low over the entire crew. Even Lady Shauna appeared uneasy. Gnome child looked down off the ship’s railing at the water below. He didn’t dare take his eyes off the waves at the risk of being grabbed by some ancient, sunken horror.

Adam Neeson leaned against the side railing of the ship with his diving apparatus strapped to his back. He looked into the water below. His fishbowl-shaped diving helmet sat on the bench beside him. A forlorn expression grew in Adam’s eyes as he watched the treacherous waves splash against the ship’s mighty hull. He sighed.

Zanik was leaning next to him. She could feel the chill in the crew’s moral. Zanik had hoped it hadn’t spread to Kananga of all people. She tilted her head. “Something wrong?” She asked him, concerned.

“I’m gonna get wet again…” Adam muttered as he strapped his diving helmet on. He let out a muffled snicker from behind the glass.

Zanik rolled her eyes and helped Adam attach the hose connecting his diving apparatus to the fishbowl helmet. The thing was a huge pain to attach yourself and inserting it improperly could result in leakage.

Lady Shauna Piscarilius walked in front of them with her arms folded. She was flanked by two buff-looking pirates while the rest of the crew gathered round. Shauna inspected Adam’s diving helmet, ensuring it was properly strapped on. “Can you hear me?” She asked him.

Adam nodded subtly.

That wasn’t good enough for Shauna. She put her hands on his shoulders and yanked him close. “Can you hear me!?” She hissed at him a second time.

Adam straightened up and gave an annoyed salute. The makeshift diving gear wasn’t the most comfortable thing in the world to wear. “Yes ma’am.” He grunted. His voice was distorted by the fishbowl helmet, but he was still understandable.

Shauna grinned. “Now listen up.”

Adam tucked the lobster medallion into a secure pocket on his belt and set his eyes on Shauna, giving the captain his undivided attention.

Zanik and gnome child did the same. Even with her evident unease, Lady Shauna had a terrifying sense of authority about her.

“You are now officially acting as an adventurer on behalf of the Piscarilius house of Kourend.” Shauna briefed to Adam. “I want you to make that known to any one or thing you run into down there.”

Ish the navigator stepped forward. “Captain, is that really a good idea? What if they have no real quarrel with us? What if they were just after the green one or-?” He was cut off by Shauna putting a gloved finger over his mouth to silence him.

“I want them to know that attacking my house was the biggest mistake they ever made.” Shauna responded coldly.

“Does this mean I’m getting paid?” Adam asked offhandedly.

Shauna ignored the question. She took her hand away from Ish’s face and turned back to Adam. “The Sea Trolls’ castle is a mile north of here. You oughta be able to swim that far.”

“Don’t see why not.” Adam replied, his eyes narrowed.

Shauna smirked at Adam. There was something she wasn’t telling him. Adam knew it.

“I’d have preferred to just drop you right inside the castle walls, but if what our goblin friend tells us is true, then it seems that would be impossible without being seen. Time already isn’t on our side…”

Suddenly, Adam felt a cold clamp on his ankle. He looked down. A pirate had shackled his leg to a large anchor. “What the hell?!” He squawked as he tried to shake the clamp off his ankle.

“Quit squirming, you’ll only hurt yourself!” Shauna laughed. “It’ll waste too much time to have you float down. Besides, we don’t want you being intercepted by sea trolls in your descent, do we?”

Adam said nothing. He tugged at the chain on his leg.

Lady Shauna pulled a small, iron key from her coat pocket and handed it to Adam. “Don’t lose this!” She said flirtatiously. “You’ll need it once you reach the bottom.”

With a defeated sigh, Adam took the key and stuck it in the same pocket on his belt where he kept the medallion. “How do I bring up the prisoners once I free them?”

Shauna folded her arms and rolled her eyes. “Assuming anybody is still alive down there, Rada knows how, we’ve got fishing nets that should reach the ocean floor and can pick people up by the dozen.” She sighed as she paced back and forth in front of Adam. “It won’t be comfortable, but it’ll beat climbing up the anchor.”

Adam tilted his head. Shauna’s tone didn’t inspire much confidence.

“You have five hours to return to the ship, with or without the others.” Shauna said coldly, she turned her back to him and motioned to a few pirates who ran off from the crowd.

Adam was confused. “The tank carries eight.” He corrected her, pointing to the diving apparatus strapped to his back. He didn’t notice the anchor he was chained to being lifted onto the ship’s railing by the two buff looking pirates.

Zanik and Gnome child saw what the pirates were doing and exchanged uneasy glances.

“In five hours, the sun will begin to set. If you’re not back by then, I’m going to assume you’re dead and I’ll carry on with plan B.” Shauna explained. “Believe me, I’d prefer to start with plan B.” Shauna stomped her boot down on the deck of the ship and a trapdoor opened on the floor.

“…Plan B?” Adam asked, more nervous and frustrated than curious.

“A more reliable solution to our sea troll problem if I do say so myself.” Shauna remarked. She motioned to a pair of pirates who began tugging at a series of ropes and wheels that operated a large crane attached to the center mast of the ship.

The crane’s hook lowered into the open trap door on the deck. Everyone on board the flagship watched with both anticipation and worry. All except for Shauna who was beaming with excitement.

The thick rope of the crane stopped for a moment before it reversed and started pulling something up from the lower deck. When the hook came back into view it was now carrying a large wooden platform from the hold below. On the platform were about a dozen large barrels with strange clocks, tubes and dials sprouting from their sides. Two layers of the enormous barrels were strapped to the platform with rope. The trapdoor closed, and the platform was put to rest on the deck of the ship for the whole crew to see.

Zanik gasped and held her hands over her mouth.

“Oh, you know what these are?” Shauna asked Zanik. She walked over to one of the barrels and inspected it.

Zanik nodded. “Dwarven dynamite.” She answered grimly.

“Thirty-two tonnes of it!” Shauna exclaimed with a mighty smile. Her arms were gleefully outstretched as she displayed the stack of explosives like a peppy salesman. “Each one has been lovingly refitted to function as a deep-sea explosive charge by the best dwarven engineers of Kourend. Underwater bombs!” She let out an evil laugh.

“Where’d you get thirty-two tonnes of dynamite?” Adam asked. Not the first question on his mind, but it was up there. You had to pace yourself with Shauna if you didn’t want your throat slit.

“The Piscarilius house did a few favours for Lady Lovakengj. This was her thank you.” Shauna explained, pleased with herself.

“Nice to see you finally playing nice with the other houses.” Adam remarked.

“Don’t get used to it.” Shauna leaned against the stack and carefully patted one of the charges. “I was planning on using these to destroy that Sea Troll temple under my district, but once I heard what they could do, I was worried they’d take the house down with them! So, I held onto them.”

“If you set off enough of those underwater, you could move a mountain with the concussion alone!” Said Adam.

“Or flatten a castle and kill the kraken that lives in it!” Shauna remarked with a grin.

Adam shot upright. “Are you crazy?!”

“Five hours.” She said, a dead serious expression wiped away her smile. “Be back on this ship in five hours.”

Adam slammed his fist on the ship’s railing. “My friend’s down there along with a hundred innocent people! Your citizens could still be alive and you’re considering blowing them up?” He shouted at Lady Shauna, muffled by the glass of his helmet.

“Tuck your head in!” Lady Shauna instructed him in a singsong tone. She motioned to the two pirates to push the anchor off the side of the boat.

“Adam!” Zanik hollered.

Adam could barely say anything before he was thrown over the railing and sent screaming down to the ocean floor.

Lady Shauna walked over and leaned on the railing between the cave goblin and gnome child. She sighed as she looked down upon the crashing water below. “At sunset, we sail back above the castle and bomb the hell out of it. We’ll topple their home and crush their god beneath the ruins! The sea trolls will go extinct tonight!” She proudly clenched her gloved hand in a fist.

“You’re insane!” Zanik shouted at Shauna. “You can’t win against that thing! You… you…” She was so upset she couldn’t form words. “You’d kill your own people for revenge?!”

“I’m just being realistic.” Shauna hissed from the corner of her mouth, not taking her eyes off the sea. “My people are at the bottom of the ocean! What reason do we have to believe that any of them are alive?!”

There was a crack in Shauna’s voice, only gnome child noticed it. He raised an eyebrow and stared at the woman.

Zanik said not nothing. She scowled at the woman in anger and disgust.

An uneasy murmur began to rise amongst the pirate crew. Ish swiftly piped it down.

Shauna pushed herself off the railing and straightened herself up. “That was a good anchor…” She muttered as she headed off to her quarters. She turned back for a moment and pointed at Zanik, Gnome child and random members of her concerned crew. “Sunset!” She reiterated firmly before continuing to the cabin.

Lady Shauna stopped at the door to the cabin and rested her hand on the frame. Her head sunk as she sighed. She knew that some of her crewmembers had lost family to the sea trolls today, others had been captured.

Gnome child left the railing and ran up behind Shauna. He tugged on her coattail to get her attention.

Lady Shauna looked down at him, charmed by the cheeky little gnome.

“Why did you even send him down there if this was what you were going to do?” He asked.

“There’s always hope, kid. It’s what our city is built on. I’m just low on faith...” She sighed and turned her gaze from Gnome child to Zanik. Her sullen brow tensed up again and she regained her composure. “But there’s a difference between hopeful and stupid.” And with that, Shauna opened the cabin door and walked inside.

Gnome child ran back up to the ship’s railing and leaned against it beside Zanik. “Humans are inherently conflicted.” The gnome said to Zanik. “It makes them fun to watch!” He smiled.

Zanik looked at the kid, trying to seem cheerier than she was. Zanik had always been a role model to the kids in the day care back in Dorgesh-Kaan. She put on her best hero attitude for the gnome. “What about goblins?” She asked him playfully, a smile grew on her face.

“Goblins are inherently repugnant!” The gnome child giggled as he ran off into the cabin after Lady Shauna.

“Humpf!” Zanik pouted as she stared out to sea. Her head sank into her shoulders and she crossed her arms. “I hope you know what you’re doing, you crazy legend…” She muttered down into the ocean below.

***

The air inside Adam’s large, round fishbowl helmet tugged upward against the weight of the anchor that dragged him down toward the ocean floor. Adam held the helmet down with all his strength. He was horrified by the thought of his helmet pulling the straps clean off, or worse, tearing off his head!

The man ripped through the seawater at breakneck speed down to the bottom of the ocean. The rapid descent had all the terrifying sensations of falling from the sky combined with the impact of being repeatedly hit by a train. It was overwhelming but at least he was making good time. Adam shut his eyes tight the whole way down before finally, the anchor hit the sea floor with a short-lived thud.

Adam’s speed leveled off once the anchor he was chained to landed on the sand of the ocean floor. The landing was harsh but not deadly. The weights on his sides stopped him from floating back up. Adam stayed prone for a moment to pull himself together before he opened his eyes and looked around the sea floor. His landing had kicked up a cloud of sand that was only now beginning to settle. He slowly stood up against the weight of his rock-filled satchels.

 _Five hours, crazy bitch…_ Adam cursed to himself as he fiddled with the iron key Shauna had given him and tried to open the lock on his ankle. After some mucking around, he was able to unlock the shackle. The chain fell to the ground. Adam picked up the chain and dragged it over to the larger anchor attached to the ship. He wrapped the chain around the anchor and locked it. He figured Shauna would appreciate the gesture. Maybe then she’d feel bad about blowing him up.

Adam stepped away from the anchor and turned to survey the landscape. He had landed on the side of a long mountain range that stretched as far as Adam could see. The sandy path to his left and right were easily maneuverable, only hindered by the occasional patch of coral or large rock that could be avoided or climbed over with little effort. The way down and off the mountainside was not so simple, it was steep and rocky, practically a cliff. A climb down from that side could very easily turn into a fall.

The ocean landscape from the edge of the cliff was a sight to behold. Sunken ships and the bones of massive ancient creatures as far as his human eyes could see. The whole area was illuminated by glowing blue crystals that lined the ocean floor. The underwater region was filled with exotic fish and coral, just like Musa Point. Any adventurer would have begged to come down there and explore.

Adam felt a childlike joy fill his heart. It was times like this that he knew why he was an adventurer. Then something caught Adam’s attention and the joy was drained in an instant. There was a patch of land to the far north east where there was no coral, where the crystals were a sickly green instead of blue. No fish swam there and even the ground looked dead and discoloured. At the center of that patch was the Sea Troll Castle. Adam’s heart was filled with dread as he gazed upon his enemy’s stronghold. It was just as Zanik had described.

The horrible Sea Troll King’s tentacles wrapped and fondled the castle’s tall towers. Adam couldn’t see the kraken’s body or face, but the tentacles alone sent shivers up his spine. They were longer and darker than those of any kraken he had ever fought. Although it didn’t physically acknowledge him, Adam knew the Sea Troll King could see him. It was waiting for him.

“COME HERE SO I CAN KILL YOU MYSELF, MURDERER! YOUR FRIENDS WILL BE EATEN ALIVE BY MY CHILDREN TONIGHT!” The abrasive voice pounded at Adam’s psyche. It was just like the voices in the underground pass. He couldn’t hear it with his ears, but it was there, in his head. Adam nearly fell back from the shock of it.

A smirk grew on Adam’s face behind the glass of his helmet. The prisoners were alive, Cyrisus was alive! There was still time to save them. The sea troll king had just confirmed it. Adam’s dread was quickly replaced with determination. _I’ll be there, I’ll kill you just as I killed your queen. Unless you free the prisoners and promise to never attack the surface again._

The voice responded. “NEVER! I’VE GOT ANOTHER QUEEN ALREADY! YOU FAILED!”

 _Then in the name of the Piscarilius house and the Myth’s guild, you and your kingdom will be destroyed this night!_ It was hard for him to think tough on the spot, Adam was winging it.

“HAHAHAHAHAHA!” The voice laughed evilly at Adam’s threat before fading away into silence.

Adam grunted as he stepped forward and looked down the mountainside in front of him, shaking his head to clear it of the evil. He shuddered. _Another queen?_ He asked himself.

In addition to the steep decline, the cliff was lined at the base by a dark crevasse. _Natural defenses…_ Adam thought as he squinted in an attempt to see the bottom of the chasm. Climbing down from here wasn’t going to be an option. Even if he jumped and prayed for the best, he wouldn’t make it without taking off his weighted satchels. He groaned and headed along the sandy path east, hoping it would lead him to an easier way down.

Adam never let the sea troll’s castle out of sight as he made his way along the mountainside. The dead landscape surrounding the castle was more prominent now. It was as though the very existence of the castle had sucked the life out of the area like an invasive plant. The cold feeling of dread would creep up on Adam now and then. It didn’t stop him, he’d just remind himself that Cyrisus and the others were alive and would pick up the pace.

Eventually, Adam came to a path that seemed to lead down to the base of the mountain. The path included a bridge over the crevasse as well. Adam had no idea how long he had been bounding along the mountain range. He leaned against a large rock for a minute to catch his breath. Adam could still see the sea troll’s castle in the distance, the path would lead him straight to it.

 _Hang in there, buddy._ Adam prayed for Cyrisus.

Adam couldn’t hear a thing underwater through his gear. If he had, then perhaps he would have heard the group of sea trolls walking down the path behind him. Adam was fully exposed while he leaned on the rock, still watching the sea troll castle in awe of its ancient architecture.

Something grabbed onto the rubber tube connecting Adam’s diving apparatus to his helmet. Something was trying to pull him off his air! Adam’s heart nearly stopped as soon as he felt the tug. “Fuck!” He shouted in pure shock as he fell back to stop the tugging.

When he fell back, Adam felt a large, boney claw grab him by the shoulder. He had fallen right into the boney hands of a sea troll! The sea troll wrapped one of its arms around Adam’s chest, holding him down. Adam looked around and saw two more approaching him from the side. Both of them held a trident in one hand and a large fishing net in the other.

“You won’t take me alive, you fucking leeches!” Adam hollered.

The sea troll gurgled angerly as Adam wrenched himself from its grasp.

Adam tried to spin around underwater as fast as he could. He struggled to draw his sword. He was too slow. The sea trolls could move like lightning underwater while Adam clumsily fumbled for his blade. He was surrounded! They scratched and prodded at him with their tridents and claws. With the weight of his satchels and the water all around, trying to keep up with these amphibious killers was impossible.

Adam tried to lunge his blade at a sea troll. He missed horribly. The sea troll knocked Adam’s sword out of his hand with a sweep of its trident. _Shit! shit! shit!_ Adam cursed. He leaped to the ground to catch his blade.

While hunched over trying to grab at his falling sword, Adam felt a heavy impact from behind. There was no pain, however. He grabbed his sword from the ground and looked behind. Adam’s view was obscured by a cloud of bubbles spewing rapidly from his diving apparatus. _Not like this…_ He thought as he pieced things together.

Adam gasped as the bubbles slowed, letting him see again. There, behind him, was a snarling sea troll pushing forward having lunged its trident into the barrel of Adam’s diving apparatus! The kit had been fully punctured by the trident.

The troll stared Adam down with its beady, lifeless little eyes. Adam’s hopelessly damaged diving apparatus gave it’s dying breath. The troll’s leechlike mouth was wide open with its teeth outstretched and its tongue waving. The sea troll then pulled the trident out from the diving gear readied it to lunge again.

The diving apparatus was rapidly filling with water. Adam soon began feeling drips coming from the hose behind his head. The helmet would be full of water soon! _Damnit!_ Adam cursed as he threw off his weighted satchels and tried to swim up to the surface, it was his only chance of survival. He dropped his sword and swam for his life.

Adam swam as fast as he could up to the surface, survival was the only thing on his mind. His helmet was quickly filling with water. It weighed him down.

The man was fast, but the sea trolls were faster. They easily caught up to Adam as he attempted to flee. One of the sea trolls grabbed onto Adam’s ankle and brought him to a stop.

Adam desperately kicked at the sea troll’s head with his free leg. It was no use, soon the other two sea trolls were on him as well. One grabbed his arm, while the other threw its net over Adam’s diving helmet.

Adam swore as he unstrapped the helmet with his free hand and tried to get away one last time, it was no good. A soon as the helmet was off Adam felt a scaly, boney, arm wrap around his neck. The shock made him snort and swallow mouthfuls of seawater. Adam struggled and squirmed as the sea trolls pulled him down to the ocean floor. His attempts at escape grew fewer and weaker as Adam slowly began to lose consciousness.

The sea trolls dragged the weak and defeated man back down to the sea floor. Adam felt his feet hit the sand of the sea bed, he was dizzy and delirious. The sea trolls let go of him and one threw the nets over him. The nets pulled tight for a brief second and then suddenly went slack. The last thing Adam saw was a flash of red and gold before he passed out.


	7. Lobster Party

“Harold, he’s waking up!”

The human twisted and turned as his mind crept back into consciousness. He coughed and spat, desperately gasping for air in an animal frenzy.

“The amulet works!” A male voice exclaimed.

“I knew it would. The King told me about them, this is what they’re made for!” The first voice replied. It sounded nearer than it had before. It was female. “What is your name, traveller?”

“Ka… Kananga…” A half dead Adam replied, choking on his own voice in a mumbled mess.

“Peacemaker! He speaks ancient Kharazi?” The female voice remarked in a shocked manner.

“Huh?” Adam’s last waking memory came flooding back to him. He was being drowned by sea trolls! The thought sent the man into a panic. He tried flailing his arms, but something was restraining him. It was thick and awkwardly heavy whatever it was. Adam’s barely awake eyes were glazed and everything was a blur.

Something else began holding Adam down. It was heavy and hard like someone had placed a rock on his chest. “Please sir, calm down, you are safe here!” The male voice said, closer than before.

Being restrained didn’t calm Adam down one bit. He launched his arms out from whatever barrier was restraining him and grabbed hold of the thing that was pressing against this chest. It was some kind of shell. The rough carapace refused to budge despite Adam’s best effort. The dazed man cursed at himself to wake up fully.

“I’m going to put him under!” The male voice said.

“No!” The female voice protested. “He’s just in shock from nearly drowning, let him come to.”

Adam panted in hysteria as he held the strange shell with both hands, waiting for his strength to return to him. As he felt around the shell, it became apparent that it was a giant claw. Tiny bumps and spikes on the claw scratched his hands. Adam struggled to focus his exhausted eyes. All he could see with his strained vision was a cloud of red in a light blue room with spots of magenta all around. Another cloud of red appeared in the back corner. “Where am I?” Adam grunted. “Who are you?” His voice slowly returned to him the more he spoke. He knew he wasn’t downing anymore.

It was the male voice that responded. “You are in bed, in our home. You are safe here, don’t worry.” The male voice had a calm, confident and reassuring tone.

“…Where?” Adam grunted.

“Welcome to the Kingdom of the lobsters, Peacemaker! You’re safe inside the walls of our capitol. You were in quite bad shape when my wife brought you in, but I’ve managed to heal most of your wounds. You humans are quite malleable it seems!”

As the voice spoke, Adam’s vision began to focus. He was indeed in a bed, the heavy barrier that restrained him was just a thick blanket. The owner of the male voice was pressing down on his chest with one arm. Adam looked up and down the arm, it was red and crustaceous, it _was_ a claw! Whoever this person was, they weren’t human. Adam squinted to get a good look at the creature’s face to no avail. His weak, barely awake arms gripped the creature’s claw even tighter.

The male voice spoke up again. “I am Doctor Harold Lobster. My wife Helga brought you in.”

“Helga…?” Adam muttered. The name was familiar. He turned to face the red cloud in the corner. “What happened to the sea trolls?”

“My party and I defeated them and brought you here.” The female voice responded. She sounded bold yet caring, the voice of an adventurer.

“Thank you kindly, Mrs. Lobster.” Adam replied in an exhausted slur of words. Even in his current state, he wouldn’t dare forget his manners.

“You’re quite welcome.” The cloud of red and gold said with a bow. “Although if it wasn’t for that medallion you had, you likely would have perished.”

“M… Medallion…?” Adam asked wearily, still only half awake. He brought one hand to his chest and found the medallion he had taken from the sea trolls on Musa Point had been placed around his neck. He picked it up and looked at it. The image of the Sea Troll King stared back at him and his head pounded. Adam flipped it around to reveal the lobster on the other side. His vision returned completely as he looked back up at his two hosts.

Looming over him were two enormous lobsters! He jumped back in the bed and sat up against the wall. The doctor lifted his claw from Adam’s chest as he did so. The lobsters were as tall as men and stood upright on two legs with their tails behind them. Their massive claws looked strong enough to cut the arms off a kurask. He looked around for his sword, a giant lobster wasn’t the strangest thing Adam had ever woken up next to, but in his experience, it was best to be prepared. His equipment was nowhere to be found. He had been laying in the bed in his graceful outfit although his hood and cape were missing.

The room was an aquatic blue. Shells and coral of all shades of purple and green decorated the room and the furniture in it. To Adam, it looked more like a fancy hotel bathroom than a bedroom or doctors office.

Adam motioned to remove the medallion, but the doctor stopped him.

“Keep it on.” Doctor Lobster said.

“Do you know what it is?” Adam asked.

It was Helga who answered him. “It’s an amulet of peace. It was created along with hundreds like it to allow surface diplomats to meet with the rulers of the sea.” She explained to the dazed human. “It inverts the world for the wearer. In your perspective, the land is now the sea, and the sea is now the land. You can breathe underwater and act as you would on the surface for as long as you wear it.” Helga was wearing the gold decorated armour Adam had seen before he had passed out in the arms of the sea troll. “Although in all honesty I’m not the best person to explain it.” Helga added.

Adam got out of the bed and stumbled to his feet with the help of the doctor. “You trying to tell me I’m underwater right now?” He asked both astonished and skeptically as he swept his hand through the seawater, convinced it was air. Adam reached too far and fell over.

“That’s right, you’re lucky you had it on you. I always thought the amulets remained in the Sea Troll King’s possession.” Replied Helga as she and her husband picked up the confused, green man. “Where did you get that one?”

Adam lurched as he stepped forward on his own, he was still having a hard time believing he was underwater. “I was at Musa Point on Karamja when the sea trolls attacked us. They started kidnapping people and throwing these medallions on them as they carried them into the sea. Then they did the same thing in Kourend. I’ve been tracking them ever since Musa Point.”

Helga exchanged an uneasy glance with her husband, Doctor Lobster. “Come meet with me and my party in the other room.” Helga said, gesturing him out the bedroom door. “We’re fighting the sea trolls too. It seems the situation is worse than any of us have feared.”

Adam nodded as he was led out of the bedroom and into a much larger parlor in the next room. The same aquatic themed décor from the guest bedroom could be found here. The wall trimming and dividers were made of carved coral in different shades of aquatic blues and greens. The smooth and naturalistic designs in the coral were a welcome break from the malicious tentacles Adam had become accustomed to while exploring the troll temples. The parlour, kitchen and dining room were all combined to make one large room with simple dividers in the wall trimming between them. The kitchen was in one corner and the front door to the house could be seen at the opposite end of the parlor.

There were already two other lobsters sitting around the room. Adam narrowed his eyes as he studied them close, an adventurer’s reflex. The first one he noticed was the huge beast of a lobster leaning against the wall. The massive creature had the largest claws by far and stood over a foot taller than Adam. Adam could feel the creature eyeing him back, he did his best to puff out his chest in response, to make his disoriented self look like the Green Kananga he was supposed to be. The lobster did the same. His dark red shell was dented and deformed all over. Every scar had made the lobster’s shell grow tougher and thicker.

“Peacemaker, that’s Markus, the tank of the group.” Helga said to Adam while she directed one of her claws at the huge lobster warrior. “He’s been in more fights than any of us. Markus, this is Peacemaker.”

Markus nodded at Adam as he continued to survey the man with his beady little lobster eyes.

Helga then pointed toward a smaller, hooded lobster sitting in a chair at the parlor. “That’s Shadow, our thief.”

“Well met, Peacemaker.” Shadow replied in the usual hushed tone that was stereotypical of thieves.

Adam smiled and nodded. “Nice to meet you, friend!”

“There’s a fourth member of my party, Etoile, the mage and historian. She knows everything about the history of the sea.”

Adam’s interests perked. He shot Helga a quick smirk.

“She can explain the situation better than I can.” Helga explained. “Where’d she run off to?” She asked the party.

Markus shrugged and turned his head to Shadow.

Shadow spoke up from his hunched position in the chair. “Etoile went to pick up your children from the park. She should be back soon.” He hissed under the hood of his dark cloak.

Adam noticed Helga’s antennae droop. “I was just about do that!” She sighed. There was evident disappointment in her voice.

“Etoile was growing bored waiting around for the human to wake and figured she should make herself useful.” Shadow replied.

Helga sighed. “Alright, well I guess we can catch her up on things when she gets back with the kids… I just wish she asked me first.” She then motioned for Adam and the others to gather round.

There was a central table in the middle of the parlor, it had a smooth violet stone surface and legs made from elaborately patterned coral. Adam sat at the table across from Helga and the other lobster adventurers while the doctor went off to the kitchen.

“It seems the sea trolls are attacking the surface now too.” Helga Lobster announced to the party. “They’re growing bolder by the day.”

“Ever since their queen was killed on the surface.” Shadow remarked. The entire lobster party nodded in agreement.

Adam’s cheeks went red behind his beard. He held his hand over his face as swore in his head a hundred times. This was his fault, just as he had feared! “Have they attacked you too?” Adam asked, desperately trying to change the subject from the death of the Sea Troll Queen.

Markus slammed on the table in frustration which made Shadow jump in his seat.

Adam smirked at the rookie thief.

Helga glared at Markus and then turned back to Adam. “Yes…” She sighed. “Our kingdom has been fighting the sea trolls for months now. They used to be relatively peaceful unless you got too close to their territory. But after their queen was killed, they started invading the nearby kingdoms, including ours.”

“Then this morning they attacked us here, in our own damn capitol!” Markus cursed.

“Thousands of leech-headed trolls stormed the streets and climbed the walls of our keep!” Helga continued. “We tried to stop them, but…”

“…There were too many.” Adam finished her thought, he knew how useless and overwhelmed she must have felt, having been through this twice by that point not counting Piscatoris.

Helga nodded. “They captured our king’s daughter and brought her back to their horrible castle!”

“The Sea Troll King will pay for that!” Markus snapped. “When I find him I’m gonna pull his head off!”

“It’s a kraken, Markus.” Shadow remarked with a snort.

Markus hissed at the thief.

Adam sent a sympathetic expression to Helga. He got up from his chair and wandered over to an open window. “A kidnapped princess, huh? Did they take anyone else?”

Helga shook her head.

Markus growled. “They destroyed half the city in the process… Including my nan’s house!”

Shadow snickered. “They destroyed your nan’s house? Oh well now we really hate them, Markus! We weren’t sure before but that really does it.” The thief snarked.

Markus looked like he was about to punch Shadow’s lights out.

Adam peered out the window for the first time. Helga and Dr. Lobster’s house sat atop a hill from which the human could see an entire Lobster city. His heart sank at the sight.

The city was in ruins. Thousands of houses decorated with purple, aqua blue, green and gold filled the city streets in every direction. Every single one of them appeared to have been smashed up in some way, just like Piscarilius. The view of the city would have been staggering, were it not so sad. An entire underwater kingdom that Adam never knew existed, destroyed by those savage monsters. Adam learned against the windowsill in silence as he watched the tiny figures of lobster people in the distance as they worked to repair their homes and carry their dead soldiers off the streets.

There was a rumble in the distance. It sounded like the Keldagrim minecart system. Adam squinted as he noticed a tiny pink line rolling across the city skyline on tracks that stood on scaffolding placed throughout the city.

Shadow crept up behind Adam. “At least they got the train working again.” He muttered.

Adam smirked at the thief’s attempt at optimism. It seemed that the dwarves and cave goblins were not the first to make use of trains as transportation. He wished Zanik had been there to see it.

The pink train zipped across the oceanic city skyline and followed its track up to a magnificent castle that stood in the center of the lobster city. _The Lobster King’s keep,_ Adam marveled to himself. The castle was similar in architecture to the sea trolls’ fortress but was hugely different in the way it was decorated. The many towers and bastions of the lobster castle were spiraled and pointed as though they were made from enormous, glossy shells. The keep stood vibrant and proud with its colourful decorations of coral and gold. It was hard to believe it had only recently been swarmed by sea trolls.

Adam turned back toward the lobsters and punched his palm with his fist. He pulled out his notepad and pen to write about the kidnapped lobster princess. The pen ripped right through the paper and the ink smudged across the page. It was then that he remembered he was still underwater

 _“Fuck…”_ He cursed to himself as the lobsters watched him fumble around with the wad of pulp that was once his notepad. “So what’s the plan?”

“We haven’t got one, I’m afraid.” Shadow admitted. “The sea troll king’s castle is impenetrable!” He sulked. “We were tracking the sea trolls down hoping to intercept them before they made it home.”

“We were searching for their army for hours but all we found was you!” Markus sneered.

Helga’s antennae curled in distaste for Markus’ tone. “Markus! Be kind!” She scolded and then turned back to Adam. “But… yes, it was as though the sea troll army completely disappeared once it got over the hill!”

“I’ve seen armies move fast but not that fast, the sea troll king’s castle is quite a way away over flat land!” Adam pointed out. “You should have been able to see them from the top of that mountain.”

There was no response from the party.

“…Well it sure as shit isn’t the time to start giving up! There’s gotta be a way over those walls!” Adam declared. “I’ve barged into places way more dangerous than that!”

Doctor Lobster arrived from the kitchen with a tray of sushi. “Have you any ideas? Peacemaker?” He asked, trying to be a part of things in a room full of experienced adventurers.

Adam shook his head. “I didn’t get a good enough look at the layout. I’d need some binoculars or something.”

“It won’t do any good.” A stern feminine voice said from behind. “The sea troll fortress has no weakness.”

Helga stood up from the table. “Etoile! You’ve arrived!”

“I’m sorry I’m late, Geoff here was absolutely filthy when I found him.”

Adam turned around to see a mermaid floating at the front door of the house. He blushed. Unlike other mermaids Adam had met in his adventures, which were typically reptilian and monstrous, Etoile was absolutely beautiful. An icyene of the sea. Her face seemed more elf-like than mermaid, pointy ears and all. Her lips were a glossy red instead of the usual pale green. The scales on her long waving tail were a sparkling purple. Her red hair floated in place around her while the rest of her body bobbed up and down as she swam in place before the rest of her party. Adam opened his mouth to introduce himself when he was interrupted by the pitter patter of tiny lobster feet running through the door behind the mermaid.

The two small lobsters ran into the room and hugged Doctor Lobster by the legs.

“Daddy! Look! We found auntie Etoile at the park!” One of the lobster children exclaimed. It was a little girl.

The lobster doctor laughed as he hugged the two. “I see that, Abigail. Now tell me, was Geoff playing in the mud again?”

“Don’t tell him, Abi!” The boy cried.

Doctor Lobster laughed. “At least you’re clean now. Why don’t you two give your mother a hug and go play upstairs?”

The children ran over to Helga and hugged her briefly before running up the stairs. Adam grinned at the display and his heart rose into his throat.

Helga’s antennae lowered again as she watched her children run up the stairs. “They’re growing up too fast…” She muttered.

Etoile folded her arms. “You didn’t feel that way when you were pregnant with them!” She scoffed. The mermaid then gestured toward Adam in a way that was more investigative than interested. “Who is this man anyway?”

“This is Kananga, he’s a human adventurer from the surface.” Helga explained. “He’s trying to fight the sea trolls too.”

“Humans don’t come in green.” Etoile said coldly, narrowing her yellow eyes at Adam. “What else aren’t you telling us?” She sneered.

“You’re awfully articulate for a mermaid…” Adam said through gritted teeth. Mermaid accents tended to be vulgar and shoddy, but Etoile’s voice sounded proper and calculated. Adam felt like he was talking to some rich, educated Varrockite rather than a mermaid.

Etoile’s sparkling red lips flashed Adam a smirk. She flirted with her hair. Etoile knew Adam was reading her just as she was reading him.

Helga waved her claws to beckon the two over to the table. “Alright, that’s enough. Let’s get down to business!”

Adam sat back in his seat at the table while Etoile floated beside it. With her beautiful sparkling tail, Etoile was beyond the concept of sitting.

“Does the King plan to send an army to rescue to princess?” Etoile asked Helga.

“No,” Helga replied. “King Lobster doesn’t think anyone can get past the sea trolls’ massive castle gates. Especially with their kraken king guarding the tower. That’s what Simpkin relayed to me.”

Etoile nodded. “He has a point, unfortunately.”

Adam scratched his beard in deep thought. Any army would get crushed by the Sea Troll King’s tentacles before they even made it past the gate. “Then perhaps we should look at another strategy, maybe one more discreet.” He suggested, shooting Shadow a quick grin.

“Why does a human care about sea trolls?” Etoile asked. The way she said the word _does_ made it seem like she already knew the answer.

Adam narrowed his eyes. “The sea trolls have taken over a hundred humans prisoner since yesterday, including a close friend of mine.” Replied Adam in his best diplomat voice, something he still found difficult to pull off with his loud and gravelly accent. “I’m going to that castle to save them.”

“It seems they’ve gotten even bolder than we originally thought.” Helga said to Etoile.

Etoile folded her arms and swam over to the window. “They’re most likely preparing a feast or ritual of some sort in celebration of the turning of their new queen. That’s what they did with the old one a hundred years ago.” The mermaid mage remarked as she looked over to the damaged city gate.

Helga flinched as she heard Etoile’s words. “How can you just give up like that!?”

Etoile shook her head as she turned back to Helga at the table. “I’m just stumped. I failed to save the princess the last time this happened, and believe me, I will do anything to prevent it from happening again.”

“Last time?” Adam asked.

It was Helga who answered him. “The previous Sea Troll Queen was once a Lobster like us.” Helga explained. “The Sea Troll King transformed her into a kraken to lead the sea trolls over a century ago.”

“It’s more complicated than that.” Etoile spoke up. “The sea trolls _need_ a queen, we don’t know why but they will stop at nothing until they have one.” The mermaid’s breasts bobbed up and down opposite to her own motion as she swam in place.  “When their queen dies… Eyes up here, human! When their queen dies, the entire race starts to grow physically weaker for some reason. And then, like a cornered or wounded animal, they become vicious, more so than usual, attacking everyone and everything until they get a replacement.”

“And with the death of the previous queen…” Adam began.

“…The sea trolls will need a new one.” Etoile finished the thought. “And that new one will be Princess Lobstavia of the Lobster Kingdom.”

“Why?” Adam asked.

“Why her?” Etoile asked in response. Her eyebrows raised in confusion from the human’s ignorance. “Because Lobster Princesses are magic!”

Adam narrowed his eyes with his mouth ajar, unsure if he had just been disrespected by the mermaid or if that was some kind of common knowledge among people under the sea. _This must have been how Zanik felt when she first explored the surface._ He thought to himself.

“Lobster Princesses take the form of whoever…” Etoile began.

“Moving on!” Helga interjected. “The point is we need to stop this from happening.”

Adam was feeling somewhat flustered but still morbidly curious. “ _This,_ as in…” He started.

“Ritual! Let’s call it that! I don’t want to think about it!” Helga snapped.

“Indeed,” Etoile commented. She looked around the room. “Have you any plans on stopping the _ritual_ from happening, Helga?” She asked.

Helga shook her head.

“Maybe we could sneak in without anyone noticing.” Adam suggested, giving Shadow a friendly nod. “At least long enough to open the gates make a safe exit path for the prisoners.”

The lobster thief nodded back and shifted his eyes around the table for approval.

Helga nodded. “If we can open the gate, King Lobster would be able to send his army to rush the keep.”

Etoile dismissed the idea. “Any attempt at stealth would be pointless against the Sea Troll King. He can see everything in the ocean from his castle. I’m sure you can vouch for that.” The mermaid remarked to Adam. “The Sea Troll King has a particular hatred for you.”

Adam tilted his head. How did she know?

“I can overhear the Sea Troll King’s telepathy, it resonates in the waves.” Etoile said as she pulled her curvy red hair back, showing her pointy ears. “I heard it shout at that goblin, and at you. You’re a beacon for the sea trolls!” The mermaid narrowed her eyes at Adam as she spoke.

Adam shuffled into the back of his chair. The guilt of it all was eating away at him.

“Are you going to tell us why that is?” Etoile quizzed him. “Or am I going to have to?”

All eyes were on Adam as he turned red. “I killed the Sea Troll Queen, damnit!” He shouted at Etoile defensively. “She led an army of sea trolls that were attacking a human settlement by the ocean and I killed her! But I’m gonna fix this, you hear?” Adam was standing up now. “I’ll kill the Sea Troll King just like I killed the last queen!”

All the lobsters lowered their antennae.

“A true adventurer…” Etoile mocked. “Brave enough to take on the world and dumb enough to get himself killed.” She laughed as she patted Markus harshly on the back. “He’s your kinda man, Markus!”

The massive lobster growled at the mermaid mage.

A brief moment went by where nobody said a thing. Nobody knew how they could possibly defeat or outsmart the Sea Troll King.

Adam stroked the medallion around his neck as he pondered the situation. An impenetrable fortress guarded by the god of the sea, a kidnapped princess, a disappearing army. Adam narrowed his eyes as he tried to remember the layout of the castle. He couldn’t remember anything that could be a weakness. What was strange however, was how the sea troll army supposedly vanished once it got over the hill.

One of the most striking features of the sea troll kingdom was how flat and barren it was on that side of the mountain. There was no way an army could have made it to the castle before Helga and her party reached the top of the mountain unless they truly did disappear.

He felt his thumb over the Sea Troll King’s monstrous face on the medallion when it came to him. The portals! There must have been another one hidden in or around the mountainside! That’s how they got back home as fast as they did!

Adam stood up and slammed his hands on the stone table.

Helga shot him a scolding glare just as she had done with Markus.

“I know how we’re getting into the caste!” Adam declared triumphantly.

All eyes were on him.

“The sea trolls use giant portals to travel all over the sea!” Adam explained. “Medallions like this one are the keys that activate the portal, you just place the medallion on the map and the portal takes you there!”

Etoile played with her hair as she listened to the green human. A grin grew on her face.

Adam continued. “There was one by Musa Point, one under Piscarilius, and I’m pretty sure there’s a couple around here! That must have been how the sea trolls disappeared on you!”

Helga stood up. “And with your medallion we can use the portal to drop us inside the Sea Trolls’ castle!”

Etoile made a tent with her fingers and smiled. “Brilliant!” She proclaimed. The mermaid nodded toward the medallion around Adam’s neck. “That’s an amulet of peace isn’t it?” She remarked.

“That’s what I’m told anyway.” Adam turned to Helga and Dr. Lobster for confirmation. He flipped the medallion so that the kraken side was facing outward.

Etoile turned to Helga with a kink in her lip. “That monster has perverted everything, hasn’t he?”

Adam spoke up. “The Sea Troll King? That’s who is depicted on this medallion, right?”

Etoile sighed. “It wasn’t always that way…”

“Shauna was right then…” Adam muttered. All of a sudden, a thought came back to him, a horrible one. His eyes shot open and his heart nearly beat out of his chest as he remembered Lady Shauna’s plan. “Oh shit!” He shouted as he ran his head though his hair as he desperately looked around the room. “Mrs. Lobster! Where’s my cape and sword? I’m going to the sea trolls’ castle!”

Helga stood up. “Their both hanging up in the closet…”

Adam ran over to the closet door and grabbed his things before Helga could finish talking. “Thank you for everything, Dr. and Mrs. Lobster!” He threw his cape on and stuck his sword, scabbard and bruma torch back onto his belt. “How long was I out for?!” He asked manically.

Dr. Lobster looked at the clock. “Only an hour or so.”

“Shit…” Adam muttered. “We’ve gotta head out there!”

“Please, can you stay a little longer? You should meet with the king before you go!” Helga called at him. “He requested to speak with you when you woke up.”

“There isn’t any time!” Adam snapped back. “If I’m not back on the surface in a few hours this whole region is gonna get blown to hell!”

“You really should meet with King Lobster, Peacemaker.” Etoile said. “You don’t stand a chance against the Sea Troll King with just that sword and we have no weapons except our own. The King could give you access the armoury.”

“Also, maybe we can convince the King to mobilize the army for when we get the gate open!” Helga reminded him.

Adam sighed with his hand on the door. The lobster and mermaid had a point. Normally in a situation like this, Adam would have armed himself to the teeth, however the diving gear didn’t permit it. Now that he was wearing the medallion, he could really use some better equipment. “How long is the walk?”

“No walking at all!” Helga replied as she got up from the table. “We can take the train. I’ll go with you.”

“Thank you, Mrs. Lobster.” Adam said with a fake smile, trying to keep his cool.

***

Helga Lobster walked with Adam over to the train stop just outside the house. Many lobster civilians shot uneasy glances at the large, green human. Their fears seemed to subside once they saw who he was with.

“Don’t let them bother you, Peacemaker.” Helga muttered to Adam while they waited for the train. “Nobody has ever seen a human for hundreds of years. Just stick with me and everything will be fine.”

Adam tapped his foot and looked up at the ocean sky. He could still see the distorted image of the sun above the sea. There was still time. “Thank you Mrs. Lobster.” He replied, still looking up at the wavy silhouette of the sun above.

“What’s worrying you?” Helga asked with motherly concern. “Why are you in such a rush?”

Adam looked over to Helga. He took a deep breath. “I’d rather not talk about it in public, Mrs. Lobster. But let’s just say the woman I hitched a ride with to get here has an ungodly explosive temper. If we don’t get the prisoners out of that castle before nightfall, my ride is likely going to do something incredibly stupid and then there aren’t gonna be any prisoners left to save. Truth be told, I’m taking gamble just by talking to your king here. We should be searching for the portal chamber!”

Helga looked around anxiously, hoping that Adam’s words weren’t being overheard by the other lobsters waiting for the train. “You need better gear if you’re going to stand a chance against that kraken or the sea trolls. The king’s armoury will have what you need.” Helga said in a hushed tone, gesturing to her gold coloured armour and sword at her belt. “I told Etoile to dowse the countryside for any sign of a portal chamber, with any luck she’ll have found it by the time we meet up with them.”

Adam nodded in concession. There was no point arguing with the party leader anymore. He took another meditative breath.

At last, the pink shell-clad train appeared from around the bend and stopped in front of everyone waiting at the train stop. Dozens of giant lobsters scrambled to and from the train. Among the red sea of bustling crustaceans was the tall and green Adam Neeson holding tight onto Helga’s claw.

 _Like hell am I gonna waste time getting lost in this city._ Adam grumbled in his head as Mrs. Lobster guided him to their seats on the train as though he were a small child.

The train car had no roof on it unlike the underground train built by the dwarves and cave goblins. The whole thing more closely resembled a long chain of minecarts that had been decorated with large pink shells on the sides. The shells opened down the middle to allow passengers in and out of the individual train cars.

“Ladies first.” Adam said as he opened the side of the car and motioned for Helga to take a seat.

“Thank you very much, mister!” Helga replied fancily. She stepped onto the train and sat down. The train car was big enough to hold two giant lobsters sitting abreast with space in the front to hold their belongings.

Adam sat down beside the lobster woman and shut the door. The next moment the train started moving. Then the train began picking up speed, then a little more speed. As the chugging of the train’s engines grew louder Adam soon enough found himself going faster than he had ever gone in his life.

The medallion around Adam’s neck had transformed the ocean around him into an aquatic wind that ran though his hair as he held on tight to the side of the car. The ticking clock of Shauna Piscarilius escaped his mind for the moment.

“You've got a wonderful family, Mrs. Lobster!” Adam shouted over the mechanical noise from the train’s wheels below.

Helga turned to Adam. Her antennae curled with pride. “Thank you! It's not always easy being a mom and wife while I'm out on adventures but I try to come home at least three times a week!” She shouted back to the man. The two had to raise their voices in order to hear each other as the pink train zipped through the city. Helga’s antennae then lowered.

“I admire your dedication!” Adam replied with a smile. The train took a sharp left turn. Adam held on tight to the side of the train car and lurched from the motion. After turning the corner, the train slowed and began climbing an upward section of track. The chugging of the train got quieter as it slowly climbed higher and higher save for the continuous ticking noise of the chains that pulled the train up the track.

“Do you have a family, Peacemaker?” Helga asked Adam.

“Not really, I was raised by goblins and they're not exactly sentimental about who stays under their roof.” Adam replied as he looked down over the flattened city as the train continued to climb the upward sloping track. He then turned to face the lobster woman. “To tell you the truth, I'm jealous of you, Mrs. Lobster. Seeing a happy family like that always gets me kind of emotional as an outsider.”

“Have you ever thought about getting married and having kids?” Helga asked. The train was beginning to pick up speed again.

“I don’t know if I’ve got what it takes to be a dad! I don’t know how you do it what with your adventuring and all! I've already got a hellcat and a monkey but they’re pretty low maintenance.” The train was growing louder. “And then there's Peg, who's kind of a combination of the two... She steals enough food from my kitchen to count for something!” Adam laughed.

“How old is she?”

“6! ...or 20? Around there I think!”

“You don't remember?”

“Well how old are your kids?” Adam asked defensively. He was never any good with numbers, or children for that matter.

“They're both 3. No wait, 4! Oh my god!” Helga laughed and buried her face in her claws in embarrassment and maternal horror.

Adam smirked. “Don't worry about it! It's been a difficult day for you and your mind's on other things. You can tell me about all about your family after we get this over with.”

“Sounds good. So, you're Kharazi?” Helga asked him.

“No, I'm from Asgarnia.” Adam corrected her.

”I've never heard of Asgarnia.”

“I'm not surprised.” Adam noted. “It's a fairly new kingdom in the grand scheme of things. But I live on Zeah now anyways!” The train turned a corner and started speeding downhill again. The noise of the train’s many wheels on the track began to pick up. They were nearing the lobster keep.

“What does your name come from then? It's Kharazi for peacemaker isn't it?” Helga shouted to him over the sound of the train.

“It is! I reconnected the lost Kharazi people with the rest of Karamja and killed a demon that haunted their lands. I've done the same sort of thing with other tribes on Karamja and became known as a diplomat all over the island.” Adam explained with pride.

“And they call you Peacemaker because of that?”

“That's right! Now it’s my official title as an adventurer. There’s more people who call me Kananga than know my real name!”

“Well Kananga, I don't think your peacemaking skills are going to help much against the Sea Troll King!” Helga remarked.

“I don't need to be convinced of that, Mrs Lobster. I've seen what he's had those damn trolls of his do! That being said, you never know! If there’s a way we can fix all this without anyone getting hurt I’d do it in a heartbeat!”

“Don’t hold your breath.” Helga replied.

The train began to slow down again as the track started to rise once more. The lobster castle grew bigger and bigger the higher the train climbed.

Helga pointed ahead. “Here we are, King Lobster's keep.”

The train came to a stop and Adam opened the door on the side. The keep was even more magnificent up close, although signs of sea troll invasion were much more apparent. Banners and decorative shells lay torn and smashed on the floor.

As soon as Adam stepped off the train, a handful of silver-armoured Lobster guards rushed up to him with pikes drawn.

“Uhh…” Adam stuttered. “Howdy?” He raised his hands in front of him, showing his gloved palms to the guards.

“What the hell are you?” One of the guard’s snapped. He raised his pike. “Get back on the train! The castle is in lockdown!”

“I don’t want any trouble, friend.” Adam replied.

Helga stood up and got out of the train car. The guards immediately lowered their pikes upon seeing her in her gold armor.

“The human is with me.” Helga instructed the guard. Her cold tone implied deep scolding of the paranoid guard. “King Lobster has requested a meeting with him.”

The guard who had snapped at Adam looked as though he just watched his entire career flash in front of his eyes. “Ye… yes ma’am.” He stuttered, completely broken by his fear and respect of the lobster adventurer. “The king is in his chamber.” The guard said as he pointed to the entrance of the keep.

Helga nodded to Adam proceeded to lead him down a coral walkway and up to the castle doors.

Adam smirked and patted the guard on the back. “You’re doing a good job, keep up the good work.” He said to the shaken guard before catching up with Helga.

The guard said nothing.

Helga lead Adam down the long, twisted hallways of the lobster castle. All throughout the keep there were lobster workers cleaning up the smashed decorations and torn banners that lined the halls. Several statues had been defaced and smashed with clubs. The guards were doing their best to push the debris out of the way for Helga and her guest.

“Is your husband related to him?” Adam asked, stepping over the shattered crown of some ancient lobster king’s bust.

“Who?” Helga asked, confused.

“King Lobster.” Adam replied, somewhat embarrassed.

“No, no! Lobster is the house name, we are all Lobsters after all!” Helga explained.

Adam blushed. “Oh, sorry… I’m still getting used to everything I'm seeing. I had no idea there even were sentient lobsters until I woke up at your place. Now here I am walking up to their King's chambers in a golden palace built by them!” He said as he marveled at the extravagantly chiseled coral that decorated the hallways of the keep. Even after being ransacked, the castle had a royal dignity to it that was worthy of admiration.

“What do you mean, sentient?” Helga asked him.

“Well... you know, the only lobsters I had ever seen were... sorta... little crawling things by the shore.”

“You mean those bugs that you catch in your little cages on the docks? You thought bugs were lobsters?” Helga tilted her head. It seemed the rift between the land and the sea was greater than she knew.

“I hope you can forgive my ignorance, Mrs. Lobster.:” Adam apologized. “Now how do I address lobster royalty?” Adam always made sure to do preparatory research for this kind of thing, with all that had happened in the past twenty-four hours, he was finally caught with his pants down.

Helga pondered. “Just bow your head and step forward. In times like this, I don’t think anyone is going to judge your formalities.” She explained to him.

Adam shook his head. “I find the survival of institutions and traditions to be a good way to raise people’s spirits in times of disaster.”

“You’ll do fine.” Helga reassured him as the two approached the entrance to the king’s chamber. “The King is a reasonable lobster, he doesn’t expect you to be an expert in our culture.”

A short, skinny lobster stood in front of the King’s chamber. “Helga Lobster! So, this is the human you found?”

Helga’s antennae curled. “That’s right, Simpkin. This is Peacemaker, the human. The king wished to speak with him and we’re in a bit of a rush. So if you don’t mind…”

Simpkin cut Helga off. “…I will speak to the king to see if he is ready for the human.” The lobster sneered.

“We don’t have time for that!” Helga growled.

“Quiet you!” Simpkin snapped. “Damn adventurers thinking they can just barge into any royal chambers they want!”

For such a tiny lobster he had more balls than the guards when it came to dealing with Helga. _Bureaucratic welp…_ Adam thought to himself as he remembered the port official from Piscarilius. The pen was his sword and protocol was his muscle, Adam’s least favourite kind of person.

“Wait on the bench outside and I’ll instruct you when, or if, the king is ready.” Simpkin instructed them.

Adam sighed through his teeth at Helga who hissed at Simpkin and directed Adam to sit down.

The two of them reluctantly sat down on the bench while they waited for Simpkin to return from the king’s chambers. Now they were both tapping their feet in frustration and worry.

Helga turned to Adam. “Being an adventurer is difficult isn't it?”

Adam was looking around the hall before turning back toward Helga to answer her. “It can be, but I wouldn't have it any other way.” He said with an exhausted smirk.

“I just wish I could do both better...” Helga muttered. Her antennae dropped.

“You mean being a wife and mom?” Adam asked genuinely.

Helga nodded. “And a party leader.” She replied.

“Your party seems to have a great deal of respect for you, Mrs. Lobster. Your husband is a very dedicated man and you've got two beautiful kids.” Adam said with an encouraging nod.

Mrs. Lobster sighed again. “I'm out adventuring every day while Harold works from home most of the time. He spends the most time with the kids and they treat him different than they do with me. Every day I come home, and the kids look older to me. I missed their first words, their first steps.” Helga buried her head in her claws. “I just wish they'd know how much I love them!”

Adam wished he had something to say to that, but he couldn’t think of anything. He just looked at the lobster woman as sympathetically as he could. In all truth, what Helga was going through was exactly why Adam didn’t want to have kids or start a family. Adventurers can’t be tied down, it’s not in their blood, or lobster juice. Meanwhile being a parent requires a level of dedication that an active adventurer would never be able to provide. He didn’t dare say that to her though.

Helga seemed to have detected Adam’s inability to comment. She straightened herself up. “Nevermind,” She said in her usual confident tone. “The mission is what matters right now. My feelings were getting in the way.”

Adam shook his head. “No! There's nothing wrong with the way you feel, you're only human... lobster... You have just as much an obligation to your family as you do with this kingdom. Once we finish this, I think you should take a month off from adventuring.”

A look of shock came over Helga’s beady little eyes. “A month?! What would I do at home for a month?”

“Get to know your kids. Take them out for, sea ice cream or have them pet sea horses or something! If it’s bothering you so much then you gotta do something about it. Being stuck at home is gonna drive you crazy but is missing out on raising your kids any better?”

Helga said nothing. She looked down at her golden boots as she though about it. Then she nodded. “I’ll do it, Etoile can take over as party leader until I’m ready to return.”

Suddenly, the doors to the king’s chamber opened and Simpkin stepped out. He looked shaken to his core. His snooty demeanor had been shattered for some reason. “Th--- the king will now meet with the human.” He said.

Adam and Helga stood up from the bench.

Simpkin motioned to Helga to sit back down. “Only the human!” He choked.

Helga sighed in frustration and nodded to Adam as she sat back down on the bench.

Adam looked back to her and then back to Simpkin. “Alright, I’m ready.” He said.

Simpkin opened the large chamber door and gestured for Adam to walk inside. As Adam passed Simpkin tugged on his cape.

Adam knelt down to listen to what Simpkin had to say. Something was very, very wrong.

“You may relay anything the king tells you to me and only me, I will do what I can to help. No lobster besides myself must know about any of this.”

“What?!” Adam whispered.

Simpkin pushed Adam through the door to the king’s chamber and shut it behind him.


	8. Ocean Woman, Child, Lobster, Goblin, Green Man and Man

King Lobster’s throne room was fully intact even after the sea troll attack, unlike the rest of the keep. Decorations and statues lined the walls and ceiling, though they more extravagant and golden compared to the hallway outside. The whole chamber was oddly quiet and there was no sign of the king.

Adam walked slowly along the glistening stone path leading up to the king’s empty throne. It was huge enough to fit the abyssal sire! Adam could only imagine how big King Lobster was. His heart was pounding but he kept his cool all the same. As anxious as he was to get going, he was still in the sanctum of royalty. Adam’s eyes narrowed as he examined the golden throne. It was decorated with the finest shells and stones Adam had ever seen. Something groaned in the corner of the chamber, Adam nearly jumped out of his skin.

“Peacemaker, come here…” A weakened, yet divine-sounding male voice groaned. “I wish to speak with you.”

Adam quickly turned his head to face where the voice came from. There was a massive golden bed in the left-hand corner of the room. Opposite to that was a gigantic stone dining table with a similarly large chair at the head. Adam recalled tales about the kings of old who kept their beds and dining room sets in the throne room as a way of showing off their extravagance to guests. It was a practice that had long since gone out of style in most kingdoms on the surface. A loose veil hung from the ceiling over the gigantic bed, it waved back and forth in the water. Adam started toward the bed. A moving shadow behind the veil indicated its occupancy.

Standing at a similar distance from the bed where one would normally stop in front of a throne, Adam got on one knee.

The shadow behind the veil let out a pained grumble as it lurched forward.

Adam narrowed his eyes and kept his gloved hand on the pommel of his sword just in case. He puffed out his chest to give off a brave knightly impression so as not to offend.

A strangely long, arm-like appendage rose up from the blob of a shadow behind the veil. The arm stretched out and made its way to the opening of the veil.

Adam had to physically stop himself from jumping back when a thin blue claw stuck out from behind the veil. The claw had a pair of beady black eyes on either side. The claw snapped at the open water before painstakingly pulling at the veil. The creature let out another groan as what looked like tentacles and other mollusk-like appendages started to stretch out from the shadow.

The long, crab-like arm had multiple smaller claws branching out from its many knuckled joints. Each of the smaller claws had the same set of lifeless shark eyes on either side just like the main claw had. The smaller claws seemed to stare at Adam while the larger one continued to pull the veil around, revealing the rest of the sea creature.

Adam nearly gasped at the monster in the bed. This was no lobster! In fact, it was no sea creature Adam had ever seen before. Laying in the bed before him was some mutant combination of multiple sea creatures, mostly mollusks of various sorts. It had a sideways oyster as what could only be described as its mouth, with glassy eyeballs on either side. The oyster face was flanked by the pulsing rear of a cuttlefish. A sprawling set of crab legs and octopus tentacles poked out from the creature’s chest, under that was the body of a manta ray.

The monster’s manta ray chest rose and fell as its gills opened and closed. There was something that seemed wrong, as though the enormous creature was deathly ill. It was quite literally green around the gills. Adam could tell by its exhausted groans and cautious movement that the mollusk was in terrible pain. A younger Adam would have stood up and gotten ready for a fight by now. However, at this point in his career, and after half the shit Rallis had shown him, this potentially royal mollusk was hardly the strangest thing Adam had ever seen.

Adam stayed on one knee, waiting to be addressed.

Without moving the rest of its body, the creature looked Adam up and down with one of the eyes that stuck out the side of its oyster face. The blobbish pupal bounced around inside the glassy dome. Then the creature spoke. “Peacemaker… How fitting that you would come to my throne room wearing an ancient amulet of peace.” It gurgled. Hundreds of purple cilia wiggled about from inside the oyster mouth as it spoke. The mouth and gills on the creature’s manta ray chest and torso gasped for oxygen in the water as it spoke.

“K-king Lobster?” Adam stuttered. He brought his fist to his chest in a Kourend salute.

“Mmmm…” The creature mumbled while curling the many crab legs and tentacles all over its body.

Adam watched the massive sea creature struggle to sit up and float out of the bed to swim before him. The king’s right side was just as extravagantly esoteric as his left. It had the eyes, faces and limbs from an assortment of sea creatures of which Adam could only recognise a few. There was no long claw on his right side, instead there were two more crab-like legs sticking out of his manta ray chest and a long tentacle above them. The king’s two tails waved behind him in the invisible water. On the side opposite of the long, blue crab claw was the face of some enormous fish. If Adam were to guess, he’d probably say it was the face of an angler fish, but he was probably wrong about that. The sideways oyster which at best served as the king’s primary visage stayed ajar with its long cilia lapping about inside.

Nearly every single one of the Lobster King’s many eyes stared down at Adam. “I am King Oshianmhan Lobster, the true ruler of the sea!” The creature bellowed from all its mouths at once before falling over. It floated lifelessly in place beside Adam. “Or at least I was at one time…” He grumbled.

Adam stood up and went over to comfort the king. “I am Green Kananga of the Myth’s Guild, currently under the command of Lady Shauna Piscarilius of Kourend. At your service.” He said in his diplomat voice.

The massive creature sighed and gasped helplessly like a beached whale. “I had requested your audience personally, Peacemaker.” The sick king groaned. “It’s unfortunate that we have to meet in such unpeaceful circumstances.”

“Are you injured?” Adam asked the lobster king, looking for wounds on the king’s body.

“No…” King Lobster groaned. “A few days ago, I found myself inflicted with a terrible illness that has bound me to my chambers.” The anglerfish face explained. “Then today, when the sea trolls attacked, I finally understood the true nature of that illness...”

Adam narrowed his eyes as he listened.

“I have been cursed by the Sea Troll King!” The creature coughed. “He forced me to watch, helpless and bedridden, as his horrible children crushed my kingdom and…” The six crab legs on the lobster king’s chest curled in frustration as the anglerfish head coughed spat dark green bile into the water around him. “…and captured my daughter to be turned into one of them! Oh Lobstavia! There was nothing I could do, I’m far too weak to move, let alone hold off an army. What kind of a father can’t protect his only daughter? What kind of king can’t protect his kingdom?”

Adam nodded understandingly. “I’m sorry about your daughter, but I’m gonna get her back to you unharmed. I promise.” He said to the upright eye on the anglerfish. “The sea trolls have captured over a hundred humans and I’m going to the sea troll castle to save them once I’m done here.”

“Mmmm… There was a time where I would have shared your optimism. Where I may have even joined you.” Groaned King Lobster. “But truthfully, even in my prime I would have struggled to defeat the Sea Troll King.” The creature grunted as it tried to straighten up, but it was no use. He fell back down to his floating position.

Adam helped the sickly beast down slowly. The once magnificent ruler now lay lifelessly on his back, slowly bobbing in the water above the chamber floor like a dying goldfish.

King Lobster sighed. “This curse, I many never recover. I can feel that kraken’s evil coursing through me like a deadly poison. I fear this is the end, for me and for my people. I may not live to see tomorrow… My dear Lobstavia!” The sea creature cried out in pain and delusion.  “She will be turned into the new queen of the sea trolls this night. The Sea Troll King has renewed his bloodline while damning my own!”

“A hero isn’t beaten until he quits.” Adam said as he looked into the lobster king’s many dying eyes.

The royal mollusk grumbled. Blood and bile leaked from his giant fish mouths before he spoke again. “I have always admired the adventurers’ pluck.” The king groaned. His voice was hoarse and strained but it retained a certain nobility like the dying breath of an elder dragon. “But any attempt to enter the sea troll castle or fighting their horrible king would be suicide. I can tell you are large for a human. But against him, you are still very small.”

Adam held his belt with his hands and shifted his weight. “Your majesty, all due respect, but I’m going to the sea troll castle and I’m going to save your daughter along with everyone else they have trapped inside. I wasn’t asking you for permission, I’m asking you for help.”

“Mmmm…” The cursed king groaned. “You truly believe you can defeat a Kraken?”

“Won’t be the first time.”

“Very well, I pray that whichever god supports you is smiling down upon you this day... Tell Simpkin that I have granted you access to the armoury. You and Helga’s party may take whatever you need.”

Adam nodded. “Thank you, your majesty.” He said as he turned to leave with a bow.

King Lobster crawled back into his massive bed with a deep moan.

Adam was just at the door when the king spoke up again.

“Wait, Peacemaker!” The king groaned.

The human said nothing, he only turned around to face the king.

“Even if you manage to defeat the Sea Troll King, he has thousands of warriors in his army that not even you and the others could fight on your own.” The king said.

Adam once again, said nothing. The king had a point. The sheer numbers made a straight fight with the sea trolls a fool’s errand. Adam narrowed his eyes and looked at the ground while he tried to come up with a reassuring response.

The King continued. “If you and Helga can manage to open the gates to the sea trolls’ keep and deal with their king, I will send what remains of my army to rush their defenses. It won’t be an easy fight, but there is a chance.”

Adam’s spirits lifted, and he bowed his head over and over. “It’s a deal, your majesty. Thank you! You won’t be disappointed. You’ll have your daughter back and your curse lifted, I promise!”

“A king isn’t beaten until he’s dead or he quits!” King Lobster coughed out a laugh that was soon choked away by blood and bile.

With a final bow to the king, Adam headed out the door.

 

***

 

“The King has instructed me to let you take anything you wish.” Simpkin the tiny lobster scribe instructed Adam. The two of them stood at the entrance to the castle armoury while Helga Lobster stood alone at the end of the hallway, impatiently tapping the floor with the toe of her golden boot.

Adam didn’t need to be reminded of the urgency of the situation. He rushed inside the armoury the second Simpkin opened the door. He had completely lost track of time at this point, all he knew was that as long as he could see the feint outline of the sun above the sea, he was safe. But even then, there was no time to waste. Helga waited at a window, watching the sky.

Blue and purple crystals illuminated the golden armoury, it seemed more like a hallway than a room, though it had no door on the far side. Purple stone pillars decorated with extravagant shells and coral lined the walls of the armoury. However, these wall decorations were mostly obscured by racks upon racks of weapons and equipment.

An overwhelmingly diverse display of armour and weaponry hung on both sides of the armoury, with even more equipment hidden away in chests at the back. Adam’s knees knocked at the sight and it was all he could do to stop himself from skipping down the hall like a kid in a candy store. The grown man walked down the armoury with glee, taking it all in. Much of the armour was purple or green with a golden trim not unlike what Helga was wearing. He had no idea what the material was, the purple colour was completely foreign to him and the green seemed too off colour to be adamant. Upon closer examination, even the gold material appeared to be a different metal than actual surface gold. Adam had wondered why Helga’s golden gear was in such good condition despite gold being such a soft metal. Three new metals Adam had never seen, and by Saradomin, the designs on everything! Adam had never seen such brilliant metalwork. Many of the weapons and armour had a distinct fishlike style to them. Shoulder pieces had fins and acid-etched scales. There were helmets that resembled shark heads, not unlike the serpentine helmet he owned back home.

The downside to all this gear is that many of the pieces were either huge or very obviously made for a lobster, not a human. Some of the weapons, Adam had no clue how to even use. Simpkin saw Adam look confusedly at a set of long blades the user would attach to their claw.

“There should be some human gear further down there, Peacemaker.” Simpkin called to Adam. “Leftovers from the ancient people and other things that were dropped into the sea over the years.”

Adam nodded to the lobster and kept walking. He stopped at a rack with human-sized armour hanging from it. On one of the racks was a chainmail shirt with a soft padding on the inside. The rings of the chain mail were made of the purple metal. Adam picked the shirt off the rack and held it out in his hands. He had never seen a chainbody with long sleeves before. It was just his size! Adam’s white graceful top had short sleeves leaving his arms exposed. He tossed the chainbody from hand to hand. It was super light, even lighter than mithril. With a grin he set the chainbody down and started to take off his graceful cape and shirt.

Simpkin and Helga watched from the entrance as the human undressed. Helga’s antennae curled at the sight of the branding on Adam’s lower back. Adam stopped what he was doing and glared back at two lobsters. “You two mind?” Adam snapped in a way that was more playful than irritated.

Helga and Simpkin nodded and turned away from the shirtless green man.

Adam equipped the strange purple chainbody and then put his shirt and cape back on overtop. In addition to the chain mail, Adam found a set of exquisite gold-coloured shoulder guards and boots that went up his shins to his knee. Lastly, Adam found a plated guard for his chest and stomach that wrapped around his torso over his graceful. He had never worn plate armour like this before, it was sectioned and scaled to allow him better movement.

Adam moved his arms up, down, back, forth and around while twisting his torso in order to get used to the armour. He didn’t normally wear this much gear into battle.

_Now for a weapon…_

Much like the armour, most of the weaponry in the armory was very clearly not made for a human. Adam passed rows of gigantic polearms and razor-sharp blades attached to claw-shaped gauntlets. There didn’t seem to be much hope until he got to a blue chest in the back of the armory.

“Check that chest at your feet, old boy!” Simpkin’s voice echoed down the hall. “I believe there’s a few human contraptions in there that we salvaged from an old shipwreck.”

Adam sighed and knelt at the metal chest. If there was nothing in here, he’d be stuck fighting the kraken with only a short-sword. Adam unbuckled the lid of the chest and lifted it up. The first thing he saw was a pair of binoculars strapped to the underside of the lid. He picked them up and hung them around his neck. Adam then shuffled through the other contents of the chest. Most of it was garbage, steely swords that were oxidised to the point of uselessness from being underwater for so long. There were also some rusted javelin and axe heads whose wooden stocks had long since decayed. Adam narrowed his eyes. Some of the swords were curved and had blades on both ends of the hilt. _Armadylian?_ He thought to himself.

The savvy adventurer picked up one of the steel swords and examined it. These were aviansie weapons! He lowered the lid of the chest and saw the star of Saradomin on the top. _Must have been stolen during the God Wars._ He eyed the double-bladed sword and swung it around before setting it back down. The winged crest of Armadyl could be only just made out among the rust. It was an interesting archeological find, but the last thing he wanted to do was spend his last few hours trying to get used to a new weapon.

Something glinted at the bottom of the chest behind all the rusted weapons. It was white and gold with hints of blue, it was no ordinary piece of equipment. Adam narrowed his eyes and reached for it, gently pushing clearing away the other weapons. It was a crossbow, but not just any ordinary crossbow…

 _An Armadylian crossbow!_ Adam picked it up carefully from the bottom of the chest. The adventurer was awestruck. He knew all about these ancient weapons from books and other adventurers who had been lucky enough to come across one. Unlike the other weapons, the crossbow was in perfect condition even after two thousand years. They represented a peak in aviansie craftsmanship outmatched only by the godsword blade itself! Armadyl’s crossbows had been coveted by all factions in the third age and were frequently stolen even by his allies. Adam examined the ancient weapon in all its glory. He all but groped it, rubbing his hands along its smooth, white and gold design. It was a larger weapon than the quick-fire pistol crossbows he was used to.

Adam held the crossbow up as though he was shooting, it was definitely more of a handful than a dragonite or rune crossbow. He fumbled with his sword, trying to figure out how he could hold it while keeping the crossbow steady. Adam shifted his sword to and from a bayonet position in front of the crossbow before finally settling on holding his blade in one hand while resting the crossbow on the forearm, using his other hand to pull the trigger. With a satisfied grin, Adam pointed his crossbow at one of the helmets in the armory. He couldn’t wait to fire the thing.

Helga called out to Adam. “We’re burning daylight, Peacemaker!”

Adam nodded back to Helga and stood up. He put his sword away and grabbed a crossbow sling from the chest. It had a fully stocked bandolier of crossbow bolts along the front. “Right, let’s meet up with the others.” Said Adam as he exited the armoury and back to Helga. The two of them nodded to Simpkin and headed out the castle doors and back to the mountain path to regroup with the others.

 

***

 

The sun was beginning to set over the ocean. Zanik leaned against the side of the Piscarilius flagship. After hours of sitting and waiting for some sign of Adam, she would have been bored out of her skull were she not completely sick with worry. Although Zanik had no idea what time it was, the steady beat of the ocean waves against the hull of the ship as it bobbed in the open sea gave off a similar sensation of watching a clock. It was slow and intoxicatingly irritating.

Zanik had her poncho flipped over her head like a hood. She put it that way after the sudden realization that her pale skin was going to burn redder than a beet from sitting out in the summer sun for this long. Now that the sun was finally setting, she pulled the poncho down. The gentle breeze of the sea rustled through Zanik’s hair. Her hangover from the night before was finally fading.

Lady Shauna’s pirate crew was lazing about on the deck of the ship just like Zanik. There was no work to be done with the ship just sitting still in the middle of the ocean. The moral of the crew was also visibly in the gutter, not a single yo-ho-ho or shiver-me-timbers was spoken. They completely ignored Zanik even though there had been so much protest about bringing the goblin woman onboard when she had first arrived. That being said, she could feel their disapproval in her being there, they muttered and scowled, but did nothing and said nothing to her directly. Nobody would dare risk jinxing an already cursed voyage.

The bobbing of the ship on the surface of the sea, the creaking of the rope and wood on the ship’s massive masts, it was all about to drive Zanik insane. She couldn’t imagine how anybody would love a life at sea. Then again, she wasn’t exactly out here under the best of circumstances. Zanik turned around to face the stack of explosives that sat in the middle of the ship’s enormous deck. If Adam didn’t turn up in the next hour at the most, they would be used to kill him and anything else in the area. She hated everything about them, she hated looking at them. Zanik had seen what dwarven explosives could do and the Lovakengj dwarves of Kourend were supposed to be the best explosive makers in the world.

Zanik examined the explosives from where she was leaning. Her cave goblin eyes let her see further and clearer than most humans. She was somewhat familiar with how dwarven explosives worked from when she oversaw the construction of the railroad between Dorgesh-Kaan and Keldagrim. It seemed as though the regular detonation mechanism had been bypassed and replaced with a depth gauge. Zanik narrowed her eyes. Maybe she would be able to disable the explosives without anyone noticing.

Zanik’s thought was interrupted by the tapping of wood on wood. She looked up and found Ish the navigator watching her with accusing eyes under his hood as he replaced the tobacco in his pipe. He glared at her from the helm of the ship. Was he reading her mind? Zanik wouldn’t be able to step anywhere near those explosives with that man watching.

The goblin woman stared at the hooded pirate, the worry in her heart made it difficult to put on a tough face but she did her best. Ish stared right back, never blinking. There was no anger or concern in the man’s face, not even a smug grin. He was completely stern with his pipe sticking out the corner of his mouth. His diligent eyes nearly popped out of their salt-aged sockets has he watched the goblin’s every move her like a hawk over its prey.

Zanik cursed and headed toward the ship’s cabin, not once taking her eyes of the old pirate. Ish looked up at the sky and then down at Zanik. He tapped his wrist as though he were wearing a watch. The gesture made Zanik’s heart sink and her cheeks filled with a combination of frustration, anxiety and embarrassment. Zanik did her best to act as though she was ignoring him while she opened the cabin door and went inside.

The cabin under the helm was split into two rooms. The first room was a sort of lounge area with a set of chairs and a coffee table that sat atop a fancy rug. Alongside a pair of enormous bookcases, the walls of the lounge were lined with maps and paintings. The paintings with their ornate frames depicted various sea captains and admirals in elaborate uniforms. Zanik forgot for a brief moment that she was on board a pirate ship. It was then that Zanik remembered that despite her seafaring and buccaneering ways, Lady Shauna was still the matriarch of the Piscarilius house royal family. Zanik glanced at the locked door leading to the second room of the cabin, Lady Shauna’s private quarters.

“Hello goblin lady.” A tiny voice peeped from a large, leather chair at a writer’s desk in the corner of the lounge room.

Zanik stepped over to the desk and peered around the curved back of the chair to find Gnome child sitting on a stack of books piled onto the seat, he was watching an hourglass. The hourglass looked enormous compared to the tiny gnome. The goblin smiled at the kid. Shauna had put him in charge of keeping the time, turning the glass over again every hour. With his head resting against his hand and his elbow on the desk, he was practically asleep when Zanik came in.

The sand was almost gone from the top of the hourglass. Zanik lowered her ears as she watched the ever-rising mountain of white sand just about reach its peak. “Can’t you tip it on its side for a little bit or something?” Zanik whispered to the kid. “Adam knows what he’s doing he just needs more time.” Her hands clawed into the surface of the desk in desperation. She wanted to scream but she remembered Lady Shauna was in the next room.

“Telling lies makes Guthix cry!” Gnome child scolded the goblin. “Besides, Lady Piscarilius says if I don’t do a good job, she’ll glue a beard on me and force me to be her garden gnome for the rest of the summer!” From the tone of his voice, Zanik could tell that despite his cheekiness, the boy did not like being put in this position. “I just wanted to go on an adventure!” He complained, he was just as scared as she was.

Zanik picked up the gnome child and hugged him tight. “Don’t worry, everything is going to be alright.” She whispered into the kid’s ear. “I won’t let you or anyone else get hurt by that crazy woman.” Zanik said to the child as she held him with one hand and tipped the hourglass on its side with the other.

 

***

 

Shauna Piscarilius sat with her boots flat on the floor of her office rather than on the desk. Her legs were apart and her back arched forward in her chair. Her knees propped her elbows while she buried her cheeks in her gloved hands. She glanced at her ancestors’ old sea captain’s hat, it lay on top of her desk where she had thrown it upon locking herself inside her private quarters. It was almost time, she could feel it. Shauna prayed she would have the strength to stand and command her crew when the time came.

The pirate lady gritted her teeth and pressed hard on her temples with her fingertips. Piscarilius house had been attacked, left in ruins and her people were stolen, dragged under the ocean to drown or be sacrificed like those poor girls in the temple. All her teen and adult life she had spent preparing for the moment someone would test her ability to defend her district and she failed, horribly. It made her feel so powerless that she couldn’t just go back and try again. But it was already done and there was nothing she could do to undo it. Shauna knew it was stupid to worry about that now and the fact that she was getting so worked up about it made her even madder. She should have stayed back with her people and helped them rebuild and bury their dead. She should have learned from her mistakes and made improvements but no, that’s not what she did. Instead Lady Shauna chose to disappear in her surviving people’s time of need and sail out to bomb the hell out of the monsters who did this. She would make whatever was commanding those sea trolls feel the same despair that she felt when she saw her district ablaze. Then that horrible kraken would die in the explosion with all his children. Shauna pressed the toe of her boot hard into the ground and twisted as though she were crushing something underneath. At least now nobody would ever dare strike Piscarilius again. She truly believed that.

Lady Shauna had never been particularly religious in her life. With all the starvation and corruption in the world, much of which she had witnessed first hand in her own district, Shauna had a hard time believing that Saradomin or any benevolent figure in the heavens was out there enforcing the justice preached by the church. But still, if there was ever a day to call in a favour, this would be it.

Despite her thirst for revenge and an eagerness to get going with the explosives, there was a part of Shauna’s heart that wanted nothing more than for that green outlaw to come climbing up her anchor chain to tell her that he had rescued everyone. Preferably he would be wearing a rose in his mouth while he stood triumphantly on the starboard beam of her ship. Shauna smirked at the thought, though only briefly. She knew that wouldn’t happen, the man was acting on a prayer. There was no reason to believe that everyone was still alive under the ocean. Shauna never put that kind of faith in anyone but herself and she wasn’t about to start. Her lying, drunken, spoiled pig of a father had already expended the last droplets of faith and eventual disappointment she had in her heart. As far as the rational side of Shauna’s brain was concerned, the green man was already dead. Her last moments with him would be her sending him plummeting to the ocean below. She would never have to worry about him in her life ever again. There was a strange relief in that thought, though she wouldn’t be proud to admit it.

Shauna could tell it was getting late, it would soon be time to sail back above the sea trolls’ castle and destroy it. Shauna straightened up and put her hat back on her head. She turned to the mirror next to her and pulled her handkerchief from her pocket. Shauna leaned forward in the direction of the mirror from her chair and dabbed her sparkling eyes with the handkerchief. It was times like this where she didn’t wear makeup. The pirate captain stood up from the chair and walked over to the mirror, she looked herself up and down. She shifted her weight left and right with her hips and pulled at her collar. Her long coat waggled as it echoed her movements. Shauna pulled at the long gloves over her sleeves and wriggled her fingers as the gloves tightened around them. Shauna then focused on her face, ensuring that her expression betrayed no weakness that would hinder her ability to command her crew. She glared into her own eyes as she gently breathed in through her nose and out her mouth. Shauna took one last look at herself in the mirror and saw the terrifying commander she had created over the years since becoming Lady of Piscarilius. She was ready. Lady Shauna sent a playful and reassuring wink to the little girl who had been thrust into hell upon the death of her father. She turned away from the mirror and headed out her chamber door.

The goblin and gnome child were hugging in the lounge outside her quarters. They looked up and stared at Shauna in horror as soon as she had stepped through the door. Shauna contemplated whether or not she should try to comfort them or make them see things her way. The goblin was an adventurer, which automatically made her a potentially dangerous adversary. Shauna raised a gloved hand and opened her mouth to speak but she halted when she noticed that the hourglass had been tipped. Deception! Insubordination! Shauna had allowed herself to grow weak and bullshit slipped through! Any compassion was replaced with total outrage. “You cheating curs! How long has the hourglass been tipped?” She barked at the two.

Zanik stood firm. “It was just a moment! Please Lady Shauna! You have to give Adam more time I know he can do it!”

“That’s Captain Piscarilius to you, goblin scum!” Shauna drew her sword and slashed it on the table, shattering the hourglass. She then grabbed Zanik by the collar and pulled her close. Gnome child was hanging onto Zanik’s poncho for dear life. Shauna practically dragged the struggling cave goblin over to the door.

The ship’s entire crew turned to face the cabin as their captain kicked Zanik and Gnome child out the door and onto the deck. Nobody said a word, but everyone knew what had happened. Shauna’s sword was drawn and pointed at the two traitors on the ground. The crew could feel the entire ship resonate with the furious stomping of Shauna’s boots as she approached the gnome and goblin like an angry bear. Her long coat fanned over her wide strides, making her appear even bigger.

Zanik and Gnome child shuffled away from the woman until their backs hit the pile of explosives in the middle of the ship’s deck. Shauna caught up with them and pointed her sword at Zanik’s throat. The long, curved blade was so sharp it made Zanik wince just to look at.

Ish was the first of the crew to speak. “Captain…?” He quizzed, though he knew the answer.

Shauna didn’t look away from Zanik to respond. “These two were caught interfering with the hour glass.” She pointed her sword at Gnome child. “Betraying me on your first voyage, huh?”

The tiny gnome tried to hide his face in his cone hat.

“What do we do with em?” Ish asked, a smirk came over his face while he looked at Zanik with a morbid satisfaction.

“Tie the goblin to the mast, I want her to witness our moment of triumph.” Shauna replied, sheathing her sword. “Prime the explosives and make way for the sea troll castle!” She declared to assorted shouts of _aye_ and _yee_ from the crew. “As for the kid, lock him in the brig until we get back home! I’m going to tell his parents personally that he’ll be spending the next two months standing in my garden.”

Shauna made her way to the helm of the ship where her beloved wheel was waiting for her. Once at the wheel, Shauna watched as the ship’s anchor was pulled up from the bottom of the sea. She couldn’t help but grin when she noticed that the anchor used to drag the green man down had been respectfully clamped to the larger anchor. Shauna almost felt bad about blowing him up now. Soon after the anchor was raised, the ship’s sails unfolded. Shauna turned the wheel and they were off in the direction of the sea troll castle.

“You’re making a mistake, Shauna!” Zanik shouted up at her as a pair of tough looking pirates dragged her away.

Lady Piscarilius pretended not to hear.

 


	9. Penetration

Adam surveyed the castle with his binoculars. Sea troll guards patrolled the walls surrounding the keep and the massive gate at the front remained closed. The murky tendrils of the Sea Troll King were still wrapped tight around the castle, especially around the tallest spire. “I have a funny feeling your princess is in that central tower.” Adam said to Shadow the thief who was hunched beside him.

Shadow rubbed his claws together. “What makes you so sure?” He asked in his exaggeratedly hushed voice.

Adam grunted. “It’ll be the hardest one to climb with all those tentacles lapping about, and Saradomin likes to fuck with me…”

“Do you see a weak spot?”

“Not from this angle… Even if I did see something, I don’t know how we’d be able to sneak a hundred people past that kraken.” Adam’s eyes remained behind the binoculars while he spoke, trying to prove himself wrong.

Shadow’s antennae curled. “Then perhaps we need some sort of diversion.”

“Got any ideas?” Adam asked, still spying on the giant kraken through the binoculars. “If we can get the Sea Troll King out of the picture and open the gates, King Lobster will send his army to rescue the prisoners for us.”

“I’m thinking, I’m thinking.” The lobster thief pondered. “Wait! You see that tall rock beside the castle?” Shadow pointed over to the cliff that stood behind the keep. “The one with the green crystal!”

Adam turned his sights in the direction shadow was pointing. There was a tall rock atop a cliff overlooking the sea troll castle. It had a huge, glowing green gem at the top. “What of it?” He asked.

Shadow rubbed his claws together again. “I bet Etoile would be able to conjure up an explosion of some sort that can shatter that rock at the base and cause the debris to fall over the castle! Not even a kraken could survive that!”

The green man took his eyes away from the binoculars and looked down at the hunched over lobster thief. “Are you tryna save the princess or turn her into a pancake?!” He scolded the idea.

“Oh… right…” Shadow’s antennae lowered.

Helga’s voice echoed from further down the hill. “Peacemaker, Shadow! Come down here! I think we found the tunnel that the sea trolls used!”

Adam looked down at Helga with the binoculars and grinned behind his bandana. Helga really wasn’t half bad looking for a lobster. He shook his head. _Married…_ He reminded himself. “Is there a portal chamber inside?” Adam called down to Helga.

“We’re exploring it now! Come on down!”

“Right away, ma’am!” Adam replied as he put away the binoculars and headed down the slope of the mountainside.

Adam stood at the edge of the crevasse with Helga’s party of Lobsters and Etoile. He nearly caught himself lighting a cigar underwater again. “You sure this is it?” Adam asked Etoile.

“My dowsing indicates that this is the most likely spot, yes.” The mermaid replied.

The green human adjusted his bandana and hood. “Well then, guess we better start climbing.”

“Climbing?” Helga shot Adam a strange look. “Why don’t you just swi…” She stopped herself when she remembered that the medallion around Adam’s neck meant jumping down the crevasse would be a fall to his death.

“Have fun climbing!” Markus mocked, slapping Adam on the back with a chuckle. The giant lobster jumped and started swimming down the chasm until he was out of sight. “It’s fucking dark in here!” His voice echoed up.

“We don’t have time to wait for you to climb.” Helga said as Shadow followed his tank friend down the crevasse. “Etoile, can you figure something out for Peacemaker while I gather some glowstones?” Helga instructed the mermaid mage.

Etoile grinned. “Right away Helga. We’ll see you at the bottom.”

The female lobster turned and ran off to the stony plains around the sea troll castle to find some green crystals that could light the cave below. The sun above the ocean began to set and Helga’s golden armour was starting to lose its shimmer.

“So, have you got a spell or something?” Adam asked Etoile. “I don’t do teleports.”

Etoile smiled and pretended to ponder. “Oh yes! I’ve got my float down safely spell!”

Adam had given up questioning things long ago and simply stretched out his arms in a T-pose for whatever Etoile had in store for him.

The mermaid waved her arms around, saying nothing. Then she simply picked Adam up and carried him down the chasm, holding him as though he was her bride at their wedding.

Adam went red behind his bandana and glared at the pretty mermaid who was holding him. “Are you even a mage?” He growled.

“Of course I am!” Etoile scoffed, slightly offended.

“Well have you got anything a little more dignified than this?” Adam pouted. “As Green Kananga of the Legend and Myths’ Guilds, there’s a certain level of respectability I’m supposed to maintain!”

Etoile rolled her eyes. “I could always drop you so that you can strike a cool pose when you land and break your back!” She suggested, slowly letting go of Adam.

“No!” Adam screamed in shock. He wrapped his arms around Etoile’s neck and torso and held on tight.

The mermaid mage laughed and regained her hold on the man. “You’re adorable!” She taunted. “Don’t worry, I’m sure you’ll get to see what I can do once we get into the castle. I don’t expect this to be easy.”

“Neither do I.” Adam replied. “And I’m sorry for doubting you. I’ve just gotten a little defensive about personal space over the years.”

“Aw… You can’t tell the difference between some thug trying to stab you and the gentle caress of a beautiful merwoman?”

“It’s more complicated than that!” Adam blurted, not ready to have this conversation.

“What’s complicated?” Markus asked as Adam and Etoile reached the bottom of the crevasse. It was extremely dark. The only light came from the mouth of the chasm that glimmered high above the lobster party.

Etoile set Adam down. “Peacemaker’s got daddy issues.” She giggled to Markus.

It took all the manners in the world to stop Adam from taking a swipe at Etoile. How in the world did she know that? “What the hell are you some kinda vampyre!!?” His bark nearly blasted his bandana off his face.

“Magical mermaid!” Etoile reminded him in a singsong tone, adding jazz hands to illustrate the point. “Humans are very easy to read!”

Adam narrowed his eyes in defiance. Standing in the darkness, he remembered the bruma torch clipped to his belt. He held it in his hand and performed the little incantation which ignited the sacred flame even underwater. The whole party marveled at the display. Adam waved the torch all around until he saw where the cave continued. He headed that way alone while the others in the party waited for Helga.

Even with the sacred flame of the bruma torch, the cave was extraordinarily dark. Anything that was illuminated by the light from the torch would be immediately consumed by shadow as soon as the light moved. Adam continued down the cave alone. The rest of the party stayed behind, Helga still hadn’t come down with the glowstones yet. Adam could only vaguely see the others under the delicate streaks of light from the mouth of the cave.

Adam stopped. The texture of the ground had suddenly changed. He knelt down and felt the floor with his gloved hand. It was tile! Adam held the bruma torch up and waved it in front of him to get a good look at his surroundings. He nearly fell over.

_The ruby eyes, the bulbous head, the twisted limbs!_

The stone face of the Sea Troll King looked down upon him with a crushing glare. It was another statue, just like the one over the entrance to the portal chamber at Musa Point.

“Y’all better come over and take a look at this! I’ve found the entrance!” Adam shouted back at the party. “Etoile you were right!”

“A-thank you!” Etoile called to Adam. He couldn’t see her that well, but he could feel the bow she took by the way she said that. “Arrgh!” She suddenly cried out.

“What’s the matter?” Adam shouted, getting ready to run back to the others.

“It’s… nothing.” Etoile turned to look up the chasm. “Helga! Are you doing alright up there, sug? Goblin boy found the portal room!” The mermaid had a strange crack in her voice.

There was no response.

“It shouldn’t be taking her this long.” Adam called back to the group. He was getting worried. The stony plains were flat and devoid of life. Somebody walking around up there would have been easily visible by anyone in the sea troll castle, especially their King. “Somebody should go up and look for her. We don’t have much time to waste!”

“There’s no need, I think I see her at the top. She’s the party leader for a reason!” Etoile replied.

Sure enough, several glowing crystals fell down from the top of the pit. One of them hit Markus in the head. He grunted a curse that echoed down the cave. Adam ran back to the group.

The stones were shortly followed by Helga as she made her descent into the caves. Etoile gave Helga a reassuring pat on the shoulder and whispered something to her. The group then took the glowing crystals and followed Adam deeper into a cave.

It was Shadow who asked Helga about what had happened to her. “What took you so long, Helga?” The thief hissed.

Helga sighed. “Something came over me up there.” She explained, still evidently shaken from the ordeal. “A horrible voice shouted in my head and threatened me and my family. He said he’d crush my kids if I didn’t…” She hesitated and looked at Adam.

“If you didn’t what?” Adam asked with his hands on his belt.

Etoile’s pluck was gone from her face. She knew what was coming.

“If I didn’t kill you right now…” Helga growled, the sense of discomfort in her tone was apparent.

Adam took a step back. “That was the Sea Troll King.”

Markus scoffed. “You don’t really believe him do you Helga? I mean the Sea Troll King is so rotten he’d probably crush your kids even if you did kill Peacemaker!”

Etoile bopped Markus on the head scoldingly.

Helga approached Adam. Adam started backing away slowly.

“No… I will not kill Peacemaker.” Helga said to Markus and the rest of the group. “Regardless of whether or not the Sea Troll King was telling the truth, I share Peacemaker’s courage and confidence that we will defeat that monster before it can hurt anyone else.”

Adam narrowed his eyes as Helga walked past him and proceeded further into the cave. His heart wanted to trust Helga, but even then, he kept his free hand on the hilt of his sword when she got close. He knew she wanted to see her kids again now more than anything. She wanted to get closer to them and to know them better. He knew she was willing to put adventuring aside in order to do that. But he also knew that she knew the Sea Troll King could get his hands on anyone or anything that lived in or near the ocean. Helga would do anything for her children and would never, ever let anything bad happen to them. How much did she value this strange human she had only met a couple hours ago at the most? Adam couldn’t help it, something changed in his perception of the lobster adventurer. He decided to stay at the back of the group with Etoile.

The lobster party stood outside the entrance to the sunken cave. Helga stopped as she gazed up at the statue of the Sea Troll King looming over the entrance. With her eyes, she followed its stone tentacles that slithered chaotically along the walls of the cave. Helga raised the glowstone she held in her claw to further illuminate the statue, its ruby eyes lit up in response. “No turning back now…” She muttered to the party like a badass before proceeding through the entrance and down the hallway to the portal chamber.

The hallway looked just like the one Adam had discovered by Musa Point, although nature had not overtaken it over the years to the extent that it had back there. The same strange tiles lined the walls of the long walkway. Adam stepped over to the wall, holding his torch out behind him to illuminate the tiles. He could finally examine the tiles as close as he wanted without being hindered by the diving helmet. Each tile contained a side view of a single sea troll along with some curved lines around it that formed a smaller part of a larger pattern that took up the whole wall. Adam drew his sword and stuck it between two tiles to pry one loose just as he had done before. It came off with a clack and fell into his hands.

Etoile came up behind Adam and watched him flip the tile around to reveal the art on the opposite side. “Those sea trolls erased them from everything didn’t they?” Etoile muttered, looking at the elflike person depicted on the reverse side of the tile.

“What are they?” Adam asked, excited that he had finally found someone who knew about the tiles.

“The same people who would have been represented on that amulet you’re wearing.” Etoile explained. She pointed to the medallion around Adam’s neck. “The amulet of peace was once the symbol of unity among the ancient people of the land and sea. Ambassadors from the surface would wear them while they visited the two great kingdoms who lived down here. The Kingdom of the Lobsters…” Etoile gestured to her other party members. “…and their closest allies, the Kingdom of the Shardana.” She grinned at Adam, but her true feelings were betrayed by a forlorn look in her sparkling eyes.

The other party members started fiddling and separated from Adam and Etoile. They must have heard this story many times before and were far from interested in hearing it again. Adam on the other hand, was completely captivated. He had never heard of any ancient sea people in all his time studying world history. “Who are the Shardana?” Adam asked as he walked beside the swimming mermaid.

“The lost people of the sea. I’m afraid I don’t know a whole lot about their history. I wish I did, more than you know.” Etoile explained with a sullen tone. “Legend has it they were a beautiful and intelligent race that once ruled the plains now occupied by the sea trolls and their horrible kraken king!”

“You’re related to them, aren’t you?” Adam asked. He smirked behind his bandana, but Etoile could see the clever smile in the man’s eyes.

The mermaid was impressed. She smiled at Adam with her glossy red lips. “Now who’s the mind reading vampyre? How’d you know?”

 “You don’t look like any mermaid I’ve ever seen.” Adam tapped the face of the person on the tile, drawing particular attention to their pointed ears that were quite similar to Etoile’s. “Not to mention you pronounce all your consonants.”

Etoile huffed off the somewhat bigoted remark about mermaids with a roll of her eyes and a forced grin. “I’ve got a little Shardana in me, on my father’s side. His grandmother. But the way I talk is due to my magical training, I have no idea what the Shardana would have sounded like.”

“What happened to them?” Adam asked, already half-knowing the answer but intrigued nonetheless. “The Shardana.”

Etoile swam out in front of Adam while he walked. Her eyes focused on the amulet of peace around the man’s neck as she swam backward in front of him. The Sea Troll King’s many eyes stared back at her. “Nobody really knows.” She replied. “All we know is that once the Sea Troll King showed up, the Shardana kingdom was destroyed along with any trace of their existence. The entire race vanished from the world. Even their art’s been replaced by the Sea Troll King and his army!” She said as she pointed at the defaced amulet and then to the chiseled stone tiles on the walls of the hallway. “Part of the reason I got so into history was because I wanted to learn more about them and my father’s grandmother. I regret not asking questions when my parents were still around, but I was so young back then. My dad never told me what happened to his grandmother.”

“Did you ever find anything? Books or journals or anything like that?”

“Books don’t tend to last long down here, landlubber.” Etoile remarked with a giggle.

“Oh… right, underwater. Uh… never mind.” Adam paused, remembering his pulped notebook.

“Most of what I know comes from old lobster stories and tablets from the castle library.” Explained Etoile. “And even then, there’s no way to know what’s true and what’s just a myth.”

Adam perked. “We have a whole guild full of retired adventurers who study myths and legends. Maybe I could search the library there for any information on the Shardana when I get back to the surface.”

Etoile’s eyes lit up. “That would be wonderful!” She beamed.

“So why’d you become an adventurer? Why not a researcher or an archeologist?”

“I was always a bit of an explorer even as a kid, that’s how it starts isn’t it?”

Adam looked to the side. It wasn’t entirely accurate in his case, but he understood what Etoile was getting at.

“I started learning magic when I was a youth. Then after my parents were killed in a sea troll attack, I went off on my own to see the ocean and learn about my great grandmother’s people’s history. Maybe find out what happened to her and the others.” Etoile tapped the side of her head. “I’ve got a couple hundred years of questing stored in here.”

Adam nodded. “I’m sorry to hear about your parents. So how’d you end up here? In a party of lobsters.”

Etoile gave a shy smile and subtly gestured to Helga out in front. “It was her. I wanted to be where she was. You wouldn’t believe the things Helga’s done in her career. She’s a legend in this part of the ocean and an honour to fight alongside her.”

“You don’t say…” Adam admired. “King Lobster’s guards seem scared to death of her.”

Etoile giggled and blushed.

“So how’d you meet her?”

“I was investigating some Shardana ruins that were supposedly still untouched by the sea trolls. It turned out that the ruins had been overtaken by a colony of cyclopsharks. I was captured by them, soaked in their bile and left to dissolve. I would have died stuck to the temple wall if Helga hadn’t saved me. And from that day forward, I’ve been a member of the party. I owe her my life.” The mermaid combed her hair over her ear with her hand. “Helga lobster is the bravest warrior I have ever known. I don’t even think the Sea Troll King would be the biggest creature she’s ever slain! She’ll downplay it but she’s actually saved the world a couple times.”

The first thing in Adam’s head was the fact that he and his partner had only just saved the world against a dragon invasion two days prior to this whole ordeal. It was always humbling to be reminded that there were adventurers all over the world who shared similar feats each and every day. His opinion of Helga was still slightly stunted from the Sea Troll King’s threats, but he was always fascinated by the achievements of his fellow adventurers.

Adam had always been shocked by other adventurers who didn’t make a hobby out of studying the fantastic deeds of their peers, or those who found the subject boring. _*cough* Rallis *cough*_ He thought about Zanik. He thought about how she was considered a legendary hero to those who lived underground, yet was completely unknown on the surface until about a year ago. Meeting Zanik had taught Adam a lot about perspective. The enormity of the adventuring world was truly marvelous.

In the short time he had spent with the lobster party so far. Helga hadn’t treated Adam with any sort of superiority. She didn’t rub her undersea credentials in his surface-dwelling face. She just saw him as another adventurer to be judged based on their capabilities. Thinking back to the first time he met Zanik, Adam really hoped he had treated the cave goblin adventurer the same way, it was certainly his intention. A thought ate away in the back of his mind that maybe he didn’t and that maybe that was why she left him. He couldn’t wait to see Zanik again after this was all over.

Etoile broke Adam’s train of thought. “I don’t think Helga would kill you, by the way. Or at least I don’t believe she wouldn’t lie about whether or not she wanted to. I have a lot of respect for Helga.” Etoile continued. “We all do, she’s a truly wonderful lobster. But then she married Harold…”

The mermaid reached out at Helga who was walking far out in front of the rest of the party. She curled her fingers as though she were catching a butterfly. “My first and only love, stolen from my grasp…”

Etoile turned sharply back to Adam. “Doctor Harold’s a great guy though, I like him a lot. Don’t misinterpret my jealousy as hatred toward Harold!”

Adam’s cheeks went red behind his bandana and he looked up at the merlesbian swimming beside him.

“Yeah… sorry if I lead you on.” Etoile said, rubbing her arm.

“N...no not at all.” Adam replied. He wasn’t sure what to say.

Etoile wasn’t convinced. “I can tell you’re a better man than you see yourself, Peacemaker. I’d marry the goblin over the pirate if I were you.” She slapped him on the back as they walked and swam together.

“How did you…”

Etoile did the jazz hands again, reminding him that she was, in fact, a magical mermaid.

Adam groaned behind his bandana. He didn’t know what to unpack first. The fact that this mage was still probing his brain or the fact neither “the goblin” nor “the pirate” were on the table to begin with! Then there was still the most obvious thing.

“I wasn’t planning on getting married at all!” Adam corrected the mermaid.

Etoile rolled her eyes. “I saw how you looked at Helga and her family. I know it’s what you want.”

“It just wouldn’t be practical. I’d be off doing this sort of stuff, hardly coming home to see the kids… and that’s assuming I even come home at all!” Adam tried to explain.

“Helga manages.” Etoile pointed out.

Adam shook her head. “I’m not so sure.”

“We can all hear both of you!” Helga snapped back at the two.

Adam and Etoile both went beet red and shut up until they reached the portal chamber.

 

***

 

“Get in there, you!” A mean pirate barked as he threw Gnome child into the brig’s cell. The tiny kid yelped when he hit the hard, wooden bench. He tried to get up and run out but was met with a barred iron door slamming shut. The door nearly hit him in the face.

“You should consider yerself lucky!” The pirate scolded. He got on one knee so that he could shout into the gnome’s face. “Most attempts at mutiny are punishable by death!”

Gnome child climbed back up onto the wooden bench and straightened his hat.

Back on the ship’s deck, Zanik found herself bound and tied to the mast at crossbow-point. Even with the threat of being shot, the angry cave goblin was hardly cooperative with her captors. She tensed up all her muscles to make herself as big as she could and fought with all her might, but it was no use. With a giant heave from the pirate crew, the cave goblin was slammed against the mast and bound to it with rope.

Lady Shauna gave Ish the wheel and stepped down from the helm and over to the struggling goblin.

“You adventurers are all the same. You have no cause or loyalty to anything except to yourselves and each other. You don’t have any idea what it means to make a sacrifice for something you believe in or something you’re responsible for!” Shauna snapped, pointing a gloved finger at the tied-up goblin. “That’s because you’re not responsible for a god-damned thing!”

Zanik interjected. “That’s not true! I grew up fighting in the caves because I wanted to protect my loved ones! And on the surface, there’s laws and ethics mandated by the Heroes’ guild that adventurers have to follow!”

“You’re no hero, none of your type are!” Shauna scolded. “You’re mercenaries! Just more crazed lunatics swinging their swords. Hired thugs who I’ll eventually have to clean up after!” The pirate captain’s coat-tail waved as she sharply turned around to face her beefy henchmen who were priming the explosives. Shauna rubbed her eyes and pinched the bridge of her nose with one hand. “I have my house, an entire city district to think about, my crew!” Her voice came out as more of a sigh that time, she sounded exhausted.

Zanik opened her mouth to speak, but Shauna turned back around and continued before she could.

“Tell me, cave goblin, if we could end it all right here. No more sea trolls, no more cultists, no more gutted girls or kidnapped townspeople and no more kraken. Why shouldn’t we? Hmm?” Shauna held her arms out invitingly. “How many more sea troll attacks would you be willing to let happen while we wait for the green fool to rescue a hundred or so people? One? Ten? Fifty? What was that about the laws and ethics of adventurers?” A smug Shauna Piscarilius knelt in front of the cave goblin. “And all this is assuming any of them are even still alive at the bottom of the sea, of course. And that doesn’t normally happen…” She whispered loudly. “People can’t breathe underwater, in case you haven’t noticed.”

“Adam can do it! You’ve just gotta give him more time!” Zanik grunted in frustration against the ropes that bound her to the mast.

“What is with you and him?” Shauna questioned, pointing accusingly at the goblin. “You’d let hundreds more die to the sea trolls just to see him again. Even if that meant him crawling back up the side of my ship with his tail between his legs and nothing to show for it upon the discovery that people tend to die if they don’t get to breathe for several hours. Then we drop the bombs anyway and come home to learn that six more cities have been hit by the sea trolls while we were out fucking the dog in the middle of the ocean, acting on one man’s prayer. Get your dick out of your mouth about law and ethics, goblin. It’s time you learned what a real hero does.”

Zanik gritted her teeth and shook her head in anger, muscles still as tense as they were when she was being tied.

“Captain, the charges are ready!” A pirate called out from behind Shauna.

Lady Shauna looked back at the pirate to say something and Zanik immediately relaxed her muscles. The ropes around her went slack enough for her to get an arm free. Zanik pulled a bone knife from her belt and swung it at Shauna in the spur of the moment.

The knife only scratched Shauna’s cheek before the pirate lady reacted. Shauna grabbed onto Zanik’s wrist in a heartbeat. With a twist of the arm and a harsh press with her thumb, Shauna forced the cave goblin to drop the knife.

“Next time cut the rope!” Shauna scoffed as she kicked the knife away, far out of Zanik’s reach. Shauna suddenly felt a chill as blood began to drip from the cut on her cheek and onto her shoulder, staining her family jacket. The pirate captain grit her teeth and stood up in frustration. “Oh that’s it, I am so fucking sick of you!” She held her cheek with a handkerchief and kicked Zanik in the gut with her hard leather boot.

What started as a cry of goblin pain quickly turned into a frenzied gasp for air. The kick had knocked the wind right out of Zanik.

“Captain?” The pirate repeated. He had still not received an acknowledgement for priming the bombs.

Shauna turned to the pirate, still pressing her handkerchief onto the side of her face. “Good work, full speed ahead!” She growled and looked up the mast. “Tie the goblin to the flag pole in the crow’s nest! Do it tight this time! Break her arms if you have to!”

“Aye aye, captain.”

Zanik shuddered at the thought of being so high up again.

 

***

 

Helga was the first one to enter the enormous portal chamber, followed by Markus and Shadow and finally Adam and Etoile. The chamber was exactly like the one under Musa Point. Helga marveled at the enormous dome decorated with the small tiles and chiseled stone tentacles. She followed one of the large tentacle pillars with her glowstone until she saw the statue’s head looming down from the ceiling. The sight of the thing made her flinch and reach for her trident.

“Is that the portal?” Helga asked to Adam while gesturing at the two tentacles that came down from the ceiling and formed a circle above a large, stone slab.

“That’s it alright.” Adam confirmed.

“It seems to be deactivated.” Helga remarked. “Etoile, can you get it going again?”

Etoile waved her hands to prepare a spell when Adam jumped in.

“This medallion activates the portal. I just have to plug into a slot on that altar over there.” He explained.

Helga nodded and gestured for Adam to proceed.

Adam approached the large altar at the base of the portal. The side of the altar had the strange map just like before.

Helga knelt beside Adam. She pointed at one of the circular slots with her claw. “So that’s where we are now, and there’s the Lobster kingdom.” Helga said as she pointed to an illustration of familiar looking castle on the other side of a mountain.

“And here’s where we’re headed.” Adam said, pointing to the image of the sea troll castle. He was about to place the medallion in the slot when he was interrupted by Markus.

“Hey Peacemaker!” Markus called from the wall. “What’s this stand here for?”

Adam looked back at where Markus was. He was examining a strange stone plinth that stuck out from the round wall. “I dunno, I don’t remember seeing it at Musa Point.”

Etoile swam over to examine the pedestal. “There’s pressure pads and switches etched among the stone.” She remarked. “I wonder what it does.”

“Shardana technology?” Adam called back.

“Maybe!” Replied Etoile. “It’s been completely defaced if it was. I’ve certainly never seen the sea trolls build anything this advanced before…”

“I’ve never _seen_ them build anything at all!” Markus commented. “They seem to be more in the destroying business!”

“Speaking of which!” Helga interrupted. “Can we get a move on? Are you able to activate the portal, Peacemaker?”

Adam nodded and placed his medallion into the slot above the sea troll castle on the map. In an instant, the portal began to form. It started as a red dot that quickly spread into a giant whirlpool between the large stone tentacles that made up the portal frame. The portal was blood red though it almost looked black from the darkness. There was no suction into the portal this time, the exit was underwater as well and so the portals stood at equilibrium.

“Alright everybody in!” Helga shouted. She directed her claw toward the spiraling portal.

Etoile spoke up. “Wait! I’ve figured it out!” She called from the plinth. Etoile fiddled with the pressure plates and switches until the whole room started rumbling.

“We don’t have time for this, Etoile!” Helga scolded the mermaid.

It was too late. With a hum, the etched stone on the pedestal began to glow. The glow spread along the decorated walls around the pedestal as the hum grew louder. The green light continued to spread, slithering along the stone until every etching on the chiseled stone tentacles and every decorated tile on the walls and ceiling of the portal chamber was glowing a sickly green. It illuminated the room.

“Great! We found the light switch!” Markus proclaimed.

“Shut up it’s still going!” Etoile snapped. She was in total awe, this was the closest she had ever come to witnessing the technology of her ancestors, even if it had been perverted by the Sea Troll King.

Adam stepped away from the portal too. He was mesmerized by the glowing walls that continued to hum louder and louder. Soon the ceiling around the kraken statue began to glow so bright the whole ceiling was green. The party averted their eyes. The ceiling then dimmed, and an image began to take form.

“It’s the sea trolls’ castle!” Shadow cried.

“And their king…” Helga muttered.

The view on the ceiling was looking down upon the dark keep. The whole party shuddered. They could see the lapping tentacles of the Sea Troll King clearer than they had ever seen them before. Its dark, slimy skin and putrid suction cups wrapped around its precious spire. Both Helga and Adam began to feel weak in the knees.

“This must be the view from that gem on the mountain overlooking the keep.” Shadow said to Adam. “A watchtower!”

Adam nodded to Shadow.

Etoile started playing with the plinth’s switches and sliders again. As she did so, the view of the castle changed, left to right, then up and down. Looking downward at the crystal covered ground surrounding the castle, nobody in the party noticed that the sun had fully set…

A faint rumble could be heard from outside. Then another, it was louder than the last.

The whole castle began to shake, so did the crystal watchtower. Even the portal room quaked causing some tiles to fall from the ceiling. The water above the castle started to bubble with every rumble. Adam’s blood went cold. _No…_ His heart nearly burst.

_NO NO NO NO FUCKING NO DAMNIT SHAUNA THIS ISN’T HAPPENING TURN BACK NOW ARE YOU FUCKING INSANE?_

Helga immediately knew what Adam was thinking. “Etoile! Point that thing to the surface! As high as it will go!” She shouted.

“Right away!” Etoile complied. With some fidgeting, Etoile was able to direct the view on the ceiling so that it pointed to the surface. There was a small speck directly above the castle.

“Can you get any closer?” Adam called over to Etoile while looking at the ceiling with his binoculars.

The speck on the ocean surface expanded as Etoile zoomed in on it. Sure enough, there it was. The Piscarilius flagship, right above the sea troll castle.

“I’m going in!” Adam shouted as he made way for the portal.

“No!” Helga commanded. “For all you know the other side is gonna be blown up before you make it through!”

“But the princess and the others!”

“I’m not gonna let you get yourself killed!” Helga shouted at him as she held him away from the portal. “We’ll go in when he get a sense of what the damages are.”

The whole party looked up at the ceiling and watched as something dropped off the side of the ship and headed down to the castle below. Etoile followed its descent with the crystal.

“The depth charges…” Adam muttered in Helga’s arms as the party watched it fall toward the castle.

 

***

 

Cyrisus stared out the only window in his cell, dreaming of freedom. He had his arms wrapped around the tentacle bars and was all but hanging from them in an attempt to keep weight off his injured ankle. He was too weak to stand for any long period of time but laying on the floor wasn’t getting him anywhere. He had hoped the upright position would improve his moral enough to come up with a plan to escape, it didn’t. He thought he saw something out there at the end of the plains, but it was gone now, whatever it was. Cyrisus was just as hungry and dread-filled as ever. He had not heard from the woman again since their first conversation was interrupted by the Sea Troll King. He hoped she was alright.

The sun had set now over the ocean. Most of the light came from the glowing crystals in the plains around the keep. They made the whole ocean floor look sick and green. There was particularly annoying beam of green light coming from a glowing gem atop a tall rock next to the keep. It seemed as though it was scanning the area like a sort of spotlight.

Cyrisus didn’t see the explosion from the first depth charge, but he sure did feel it!

A deafening blast was followed by a quake that rocked the whole castle. The rough stone walls scratched Cyrisus’ bare chest. Cyrisus winced and held onto the window bars for dear life as he looked around for what that could have been. It couldn’t have been caused by the Sea Troll King, could it? Another blast hit the castle, he could feel the tower tremble from the shockwaves.

The green beam of light from the gem atop the rock looked up to the ocean surface. Cyrisus followed it with his eyes. Directly above the castle, was a tiny speck. He couldn’t make out exactly what it was, but it rocked like a boat. Cyrisus squinted. A second, much smaller speck appeared to detach from the possible boat. The second speck became larger and larger the further it fell toward the sea floor. Soon he could see what it was.

It was a barrel…

It was a barrel with tubes attached…

It was a barrel with tubes attached and some sort of gauge strapped to the front…

The barrel lowered itself directly in front of the window Cyrisus was looking out from…

It was ticking…

It was a bomb!

Cyrisus threw himself away from the window with the last molecule of strength that remained in him. He had only managed to make it halfway across the room when the depth charge detonated.

 

***

 

The lobster party watched in horror as the first depth charge to hit its mark decimated an entire chunk of the main spire of the sea troll castle with another explosive well on the way. The tentacles cringed at the impact. One of the Sea Troll King’s tentacles was blasted apart and lay draped over one of the walls, no doubt crushing several guards stationed there.

The black stone on one side of the main tower had been turned to dust from the impact at such close range. The top of the spire learned over the newly created hole, threatening to collapse at any moment and rip the second tower down with it.

Adam didn’t know for sure, but he swore he could hear someone screaming in the back of his head when he heard the explosion. He looked at Helga, she could hear it too. The next charge hit what looked like a large chapel at the base of the spires. The Sea Troll King’s tentacles tightened around the remaining towers as though they were pulling them down. Then they retracted. The tentacles disappeared through the doors and windows they had been sticking out of. The castle looked almost bare without the blackish green appendages wrapped around its towers.

“The church! Etoile, close up on the church!” Adam demanded.

Red eyes.

Sixteen red eyes were the first thing to pierce the darkness under the ruined chapel. Adam’s eyes were glued to the ceiling, everyone’s were.

One tentacle spirted up from the debris, one was followed by two, then twelve, until nobody was counting anymore.

The whole party watched as the Sea Troll King pulled its giant bulbous head out from the wreckage of his chapel. The Kraken’s sixteen red eyes glowed with fury. It was even worse than the statues! You could see its innards convulsing nightmarishly behind its slimy, blackish green skin. The thing was absolutely huge! A trail of inky blood clouded around the tentacles that had been wounded by the explosions. The monster’s head alone was nearly half the size of the Lumbridge castle keep. It was horrible enough to look at, and then it spoke. Etoile shut her ears, Helga and Adam nearly fainted as the Sea Troll King’s monstrous voice blasted in their heads louder than it ever had before.

_I WARNED YOU ALL!_

_ALL OF YOU WILL DIE!_

_ALL YOUR BLOODLINES END TONIGHT!_

The Sea Troll King picked itself up and swam in place above the castle. One of the tentacles picked up the top of the spire that was about to collapse. The kraken began to slowly approach the Piscarilius flagship from underneath.

“No! No! Damnit! No!!!” Adam yelled out as he watched the Sea Troll King rise toward the surface. “I’m going to help them!” He cried, fumbling to take off the medallion.

Helga held him down and stopped him. “Are you insane!?” She scolded, struggling to keep him from taking off the amulet. “You’d never reach the surface before drowning!”

“Zanik and Shauna are on that ship I have to be there!” Adam cried.

“No! We have a job to do!” Helga snapped, still fighting against him. “With the Sea Troll King preoccupied, all we have to do now is open the gates and King Lobster can send the army! We have a chance to defeat the sea trolls and save the prisoners!”

Adam stopped struggling, Helga was right. “Alright, let’s go...” Saying that nearly made him vomit. He watched the Sea Troll King throw the chunk of debris from the spire at a falling depth charge, causing it to explode dangerously close to the surface.

“Everyone into the portal!” Helga commanded.

Every member of the lobster party jumped through the red portal at the same time.

 

***

 

The Piscarilius flagship rocked violently. The whole ship lurched to and fro causing many members of the crew to fall over, including the captain.

Shauna got up and put her hat back on her head, swiftly rejecting the advances of two pirates who ran to help her. “I did not like that…” She muttered, pressing her handkerchief back on her cheek. “Ish! What just happened?”

“It appears one of the charges detonated prematurely, captian!” Ish responded. The old man was on the deck holding onto the hand rail to steady himself.

“Is there any damage to the hull?”

Ish looked down. “It don’t look like it, but I don’t think we can take another blast like that!”

Shauna walked over to the helm railing that overlooked the rest of the deck. “Be careful with those charges!” She scolded the crewmen in charge of the explosives.

Two pirates yelped behind her causing Shauna to draw her sword and turn around. She was alone on the helm. She heard a splash. There had been two pirates with her and now they were gone. Shauna stepped up and peered over the stern. There were two ripples in the water below. Her eyes narrowed. Something slithered under the surface.

Another round of screaming and splashing came from the deck.

“Kraken!” Someone shouted, it was probably Ish.

Shauna turned and ran to the railing. Her jaw dropped. Dozens of sickly black tentacles engulfed her ship. Her crew was being ripped apart, crushed or thrown off the ship by the onslaught. Shauna ran down the stairs to the deck, sword in hand to join her more experienced crewmembers who fought back at the tentacles before they could grab them.

The water on the port side began to ripple. Shauna stopped fighting and watched as the gigantic dark shadow grew larger and larger beside the ship. Black tentacles wriggled and slithered all around the shadow beneath the water. Ish ran up beside Shauna while the other pirates hacked and slashed at the tentacles around them.

It was as though a mountain had been erected in front of them. The impossibly huge, bulbous, pulsing head of the Sea Troll King rose from the water. All sixteen eyes glared into Shauna’s soul as the enormity of the creature dawned on her. This was unnatural, this couldn’t be happening!

“Oh my god…” Was all she could mutter.

Tied to the flag pole in the crow’s nest, Zanik could only watch in horror. She screamed for someone to cut her down.

The Sea Troll King tilted back its head, revealing its gigantic fanged mouth. The kraken roared, causing half the crew to wince while they continue to fight the ever-encompassing tentacles.

Shauna held her hat on her head while the sea god roared. Its breath reeked of rotting fish but she wasn’t going to let that stop her from giving orders. “Battle stations! Man the scorpion! Load the cannons! Aim at the largest tentacles first! Do not let them drag us down!” She barked while swinging her cutlass around, slashing at any tentacle that dared approach her.

The surviving pirate crew scrambled.


End file.
